Liverpool star Sadio Mane has urged his teammates to forget their results against Porto in last season’s Champions League ahead of the meeting between the two sides tonight.
Liverpool faced Porto in the last 16 of last season’s Champions League. They thrashed Porto at Porto 5-0 courtesy of Mane’s hat-trick before drawing 0-0 at Anfield.
This season, both sides meet again in the quarter-finals. Even though Liverpool have received what many think the most favorable draw, Mane believes it won’t be easy to beat Sergio Conceicao’s men.
The Senegal forward said, “I think that this season they are a bit stronger in terms of their squad and quality. We know that we will have to work hard to qualify. All the coaching staff, all the players know that. Now, to qualify, we know what we have to do. We have to give everything in order to qualify. It might not be easy, but we will try our best.
We have good memories of beating them by a large margin [but] that was last year. As I just said, they are stronger now and they have a good team. They will try to be more motivated. I think that would be one of the greatest mistakes we could make, to rely on what happened last year. Last year is in the past, so we will try to forget that and to focus on this season.”
Speaking about his hat-trick against Porto last year, Mane said, “It was a great moment and was one of my greatest nights as a footballer… playing in the Champions League is an outstanding feeling. Playing a part in it and having the opportunity to score a hat-trick therefore meant a lot to me and I truly was delighted.”
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