Girona boss namechecks Liverpool’s dangermen

Matchday six of the Champions League league phase will start with a Colombian duel. On one side will be Jhon Solís and Yaser Asprilla with Girona, who host the tournament’s leaders, Luis Díaz’s Liverpool, at Montilivi this evening.

On the eve of the game, Girona coach Míchel Sánchez was full of praise for his team’s opponents - a side who are quick to punish mistakes: “Liverpool dominates every concept of the game from defence to attack, but if we give our best we will be in with chance because in football anything is possible. It’s a historic match for Girona,” the coach told reporters.

One of the main concerns for the Spanish coach is the transitions - an area in which his team has been careless defensively. That is something that they cannot afford to do against a side like Liverpool with players like Luis Díaz, Mohamed Salah and Cody Gakpo quick to pounce on the smallest error.

Girona coach identifies Liverpool’s strengths

“We need to be a very aggressive team defensively at all times in the game. We have to be aggressive with and without the ball. Those are the aspects that we have to continue improving. The data says that we defend well, but there are times when we don’t. One of key areas is in transitions and Liverpool are the best team in the world at that. If we don’t dominate that transition and recover well when we lose the ball, it will be very difficult to keep a clean sheet. Facing Liverpool makes you grow and you have to take advantage of these opportunities,” Míchel explained.

More of Liverpool’s virtues: “They play a very dynamic game, they change their structure at any moment. They have players with great intensity, they are also one of the best teams around in pressing. Any of their forward players will generate danger, they have strength in set pieces, the quality of their full-backs, they pile forward and put a lot of bodies in the area for set-pieces... In recent games they have had more than 20 shots on goal, they are a very difficult team to stop.”

The Reds' offensive power: “I have a thousand pieces of data that prove that they are among the best clubs in the world. In less than 15 seconds when they recover the ball, they are the best team in the world at creating goal-scoring opportunities, it doesn’t matter if they recover it in their own half or in the opponent’s. They are in a low block and one of the full-backs reaches the byline. At high intensity, they will overwhelm us. They have to run little and we do more than ever.”

Jhon Solís available again

In Girona’s recent surprise elimination from the Copa del Rey, losing to Logroñés on penalties, Jhon Solís picked up a sprained ankle which ruled him out of the weekend game against Real Madrid. The good news is that he has now recovered and is in the list to face Liverpool.

“Jhon is fine, he has been called up. We are missing Bojan [Miovski] who suffered a severe ankle sprain in the last play of training. We are missing him for this match; we have had three or four players carrying sprains, it’s unbelievable. Jhon sprained his ankle on the day of the Cup and was unable to play in the League, but he has recovered. Yangel [Herrera] is back running, in the final phase of recovery, we will see if he can play for the last match against Valladolid, but it may be rushed and we may leave him for after the holidays,” the coach said.

While Liverpool is steadily advancing towards the last 16 with a perfect, five wins from five, Girona are already out of the running. Locked in 30th place with just three points, they have no chance of making it to the next round.

The teams that finish in the top eight positions qualify directly for the last 16 while those that finish from 9th to 24th will head to the play-offs with the winners of those ties advancing.