ReactionArne Slot press conference: 'Perfect' Galatasaray win, atmosphere, Salah and facing PSG

The Reds overturned a first-leg deficit to win their Round of 16 tie with the Turkish champions 4-1 on aggregate, setting up a meeting with Paris Saint-Germain in the quarter-finals.

Dominik Szoboszlai restored parity in the 25th minute and second-half efforts from Hugo Ekitike, Ryan Gravenberch and Mohamed Salah secured the hosts' passage.

Read on to see what Slot had to say in his post-match press conference.

On Liverpool's performance...

From start to finish, I think we played the game I was hoping for, the players were hoping for and the fans were hoping for. Not only we played from start to finish the perfect game, but our fans as well. From the start, they were not accepting what we thought would happen and what happened – that they tried to create a situation where the energy would run out of the stadium by making sure there was not much playing time. Our fans reacted great to that and our players kept on going, so a great dynamic between fans and players and almost the perfect game from us – and definitely from our fans.

On Salah's goal...

It says a lot about him that after missing a penalty just before half-time [to score that goal]. That can sometimes be hard for an individual or for a team, so compliment to the team for how we came out in the second half because we've had a lot of setbacks this season, we've had a lot of first or second halves where we've created chance after chance after chance without doing justice to how we've performed, so not scoring. Then, Mo and the team came out in the second half the way they did. He assisted first to Hugo, a great assist, and then scored a trademark goal, which he scored many of in this stadium and for this club, coming inside and finding the top corner. That tells you about the mental strength of him, but definitely also of the team because adversity is something we can talk about when it comes to this season.

• Read our match report here

On Salah's injury...

Injury-wise, he was asking for a substitution, not because he thought he had scored enough but that he felt something, so let's see where he is for the weekend and afterwards.

On facing PSG again in the Champions League...

If you go to the latter stages of the Champions League, you know one thing for sure: that you're going to face Paris Saint-Germain because it is an incredible team. We've experienced that last season when we faced them. Away from home, a very, very difficult game and here at Anfield... I said tonight we played a perfect game and here at Anfield we played also a fantastic game [against PSG]. I've said a lot of times how great of a match that was, the best game I've managed in my career – maybe not in the result, but how football should be played. Both teams just playing football, just wanting to enjoy the fans, to entertain the fans. We were the only team that brought them to extra-time, the only team that brought them to penalties, but that team has shown this season that they haven't dropped a level.

We showed tonight that we can still perform at the level we were performing [at] for large parts of last season, so it gives me, us, a lot of confidence that we have this performance. It's not the first one this season, we've had more of them – especially in Europe – and we have to try to find the consistency, although I can already disappoint people: this performance is impossible to copy one more time because 5.02xG on a Champions League night with conceding 0.18, I think, that is not going to be easy to copy one more time.

• Champions League quarter-final fixture details

On the atmosphere...

Very grateful. I think I've said many times that we've lost twice against them because they are a good team but definitely also because their fans were so, so, so helpful for them in their stadium. I think it's fair to say now that Anfield has created an even bigger atmosphere. The atmosphere tonight was unbelievable, as it has been so many times here at Anfield on European nights. I've experienced a few, you probably even more. This was all we could ask for from the players but definitely also from the fans. From the first time they tried to kill the momentum, our fans raised their voices even more and I think that combination was very important tonight. That's why I was maybe a bit more energetic than I usually am, because we have to fight this together, what we saw tonight.

On using Salah 'more infield' and what the thinking behind that was...

The thinking was not only about Mo, the thinking is about a lot of things. You always try to prepare your team in a way that can help them during the game. But I think tonight is not about tactics, it's mainly about the work they've put in, the support they got from the fans. And then, of course, tactics can help. But this work-rate, this intensity, this combination of play is always more important than tactics. But unfortunately we've played this tactic before – Frankfurt away, Inter Milan away and some other games – but usually this season then we've got a player injured, we couldn't do it again because then we miss out on a certain type in a certain position.

So, we've used this tactic before but unfortunately even tonight Joe Gomez couldn't play, not really helpful, of course, when I had to take Jeremie Frimpong off but Curtis [Jones] again did a great job. This has been our season that every time when we think we find the system or we think we find the right style of play then someone gets injured and then we don't have the similar fit, so we have to adapt and change again. But that's part of being a manager, so you can't complain about that.

On being 'energetic' on the touchline...

I think it was mainly the connection between the players and the fans. I hope that the fans were more focused on how the players played than what I was doing down the line. But at a certain moment enough is enough. I faced it now far too many times that we are trying to create momentum, we are trying to play and then someone is on the floor again for half an hour. Enough is enough, so I thought I had to do something about it.

I've tried it many times to go to the fourth official to influence, to say, 'Are you aware? Are you aware? Are you aware now?' Never ever this season we got the extra time that we deserved. So that's why I said what I said to the fans before the game – we have to create something to fight this together, because this is very difficult. It's not a tactic I can do something against, except for running around like a lunatic down a line maybe. So maybe I have to do this more often. But I hope it gets noticed more and more by the people who have to do something about it.

On whether this game can set the 'blueprint' for the rest of the season...

Yeah, but it's not as simple as you think to say, 'OK, if you can bring this tonight, you can bring this effort every single game you have.' There's an opponent to play against, there's a style of play. There are so many factors that why we could bring tonight what we could bring. I think it's fair to say for me – especially for all of you because you are following Liverpool so many times – that Anfield and the players can also rise to the occasion. I think there have been many, many, many moments or parts of games where we showed this but usually we have 10 minutes where we drop down a little bit or the other team takes over and that's 99 out of 100 times have been the moments where we conceded because that's the first chance of them and they scored.

Now today that didn't happen because we did not concede at all and we didn't drop at all in terms of our intensity. So yeah, we would like us to perform every single time at this level. Unfortunately, for the fifth, sixth time now, I think that we only get two days' rest to go to Brighton, early kick-off. For me, that's not realistic. You see more and more players get injured in this period of time because it's such a tight schedule. We should have [been] given a bit more rest but that hasn't happened a lot to us this season. Brighton is an intense team we're going to face and we will bring the best game possible again on Saturday. But you cannot compare Brighton to Galatasaray, or you cannot compare Tottenham to Galatasaray. Every game has its own story. I hope this is the standard we are looking for, so let's see if we can bring that every single time from now on.

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