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Manchester City faces Liverpool in a must win match

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It is crunch time for Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City. They must overturn a 3-0 deficit against Liverpool in the second leg of their UEFA Champions League quarter-final tie on Tuesday evening.

With City needing goals, Liverpool can expect to come under tremendous pressure from the outset from the star-studded side.

Manchester City lost 3-0 against Liverpool on Wednesday and it also suffered a 3-2 defeat in the Premier League to rivals Manchester United on Saturday.

A single slip-up against Liverpool this evening will make their task of progressing to the semi-final almost impossible.

City conceded six goals in the last two matches during intense short spells.

“If we concede the goal don’t give up, don’t give up. You know, it’s more than 90s minutes and we didn’t, we did many times, not just once, twice or three times, we did many times we can in the short time period create chances, create chances, create chances and after you have to be clinical there but even if we are not clinical okay move, next one, next one, next one,” said Guardiola.

Liverpool’s in-form attacker, Mohamed Salah, was seen training with his team mates on Monday.

The 25 year-old Egyptian who has scored 38 goals for Liverpool in all competitions this season missed out on his side’s weekend derby draw against Everton due to injury.

“I’m not interested in these kind of labels. Favourites and underdogs , it’s common sense to say once you’ve played if you play in the Champions League stage against the winner of the Premier League that you are not the favourite what we were last week. For me, the whole game is about these two legs so it’s not of interest what changed. We have to go and lead and score goals and at the end when the final whistle goes you want to have won the game,” said Liverpool coach, Juergen Klopp.

Roma are still hopeful of advancing to the semi-final. The Italian side have reached the quarter-finals three times before and lost their last two both to Manchester United  in 2007 and 2008.

“This is a team that has never lost. We are talking about a challenge against a team that has never lost.” said Roma Coach Eusebio Di Francesco. “We will play against an army from all points of view and which dares a lot in open field, and in one against one, with great strength and great mentality.”

Barcelona’s Ernesto Valverde is glad his side won the first leg match but he won’t take anything for granted in the second leg.

“I’m just thinking about the game. The basic question is if we are already thinking about the semi-final, and this would be the main mistake we could make tonight. Let’s play and see if we could rise to the challenge. At the moment, I do not have vertigo for the semi-final, ” said Barcelona coach, Ernesto Valverde.

The Catalans convincingly won the first leg 4-1 in Barcelona.

Both matches kick off at a quarter to nine this evening.

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