Speaking at the press conference alongside Xabi Alonso, the Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Granit Xhaka took the floor to present the match against Liverpool in order tomorrow at Anfield (9pm). In a stadium that the Swiss player remembers by heart after playing there for 7 years as a guest and opponent due to his past at Arsenal and duels with Mohamed Salah.
“I think that if I have to share with my teammates what will happen here, I will. But everyone has their own feelings, good memories but also negative ones. Tomorrow is a new challenge, Champions League against a good team. I have good memories and less beautiful than here in England, it’s a challenge and if you provoke the fans they really side with the team and it becomes difficult, but we have our game plan (Salah, ed.) He has enormous quality, I remember that he came through Basel , Chelsea, Roma and now Liverpool. He has grown and is fantastic in front of goal, he is now a legend. We will have to give our all to stop him.”
In conclusion, the journalists present in the press room tried to ask Xhaka for some advance information on Xabi Alonso’s formation choices and a comment on the last banana peel (0-0) against Stuttgart: “We talked about the match against Stuttgart, the best match of the season, we showed great intensity, we should have won it. I’m not the right person to talk about the formation, but we are mentally prepared and we want to play at the same level as Liverpool. We hope to offer a good performance tomorrow.”