Cody Gakpo is a fitness doubt for Liverpool’s Champions League last-16 first leg against Paris Saint-Germain at Parc des Princes on Wednesday, March 5.
The Dutch attacker, who is the club’s second top scorer with 16 goals so far this season, missed training due to discomfort in his ankle but did travel to the French capital as part of a 24-man squad.
“Unfortunately yesterday Cody had to block a shot and felt a bit of pain again,” said Liverpool head coach Arne Slot ahead of the game.
“We took him with us to judge how he is tomorrow and whether he can be part of the squad. It will be a close call.”
Slot admitted that the draw for the knockout stages couldn’t have been any tougher for Liverpool with Luis Enrique’s side on a run of 10 successive wins.
The tie pits two of the most prolific attackers in Europe against each other with Mohamed Salah, who has scored 30 goals this season, facing Ousmane Dembele, who has netted 26 times.
“It’s clear because I see PSG as one of the strongest teams in Europe and I think everyone agrees with me if you’ve been watching them in recent months,” Slot said.
“It’s a great fixture to look forward to for anyone who loves football. Both teams have scored so many goals this season. Quite similar playing styles maybe, both teams like to have the ball and work really hard without the ball.
“I think anyone who watched football the last few months could tell you maybe we would have preferred to play against Benfica.
“But when you are Liverpool, you want to play big games and this is definitely a big game for us.
“Luis Enrique has done a lot of things really well here over the past one and a half seasons. If you look at the quality Dembele brings to the team at the moment it’s impressive. Both teams have attackers in great form.”
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Luis Enrique described Slot’s Liverpool as “almost perfect” but the Dutchman insists his treble-chasing side still have much to prove.
He said: “It’s a nice compliment to get but the best team in Europe has to win the Champions League and we are far away from that.
“I think the best team in Europe at the moment is still Real Madrid because they won this competition last season.
“We need to be the best possible version of ourselves here tomorrow.
“It’s not easy to dominate possession against PSG because they take a lot of risk when they press, they go man v man all over the pitch. We have to adapt really well to what’s in front of us.”
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(Nikki Dyer – LFC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
