Arne Slot gives Alisson Becker injury update and points to Liverpool Champions League advantage
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Liverpool Echo IconSportFootballLiverpool FCLiverpool take on Galatarasay in the last-16 of the Champions League on Tuesday eveningArne Slot is confident Liverpool will benefit from having already faced Galatasaray's infamous wall of noise when they resume their tilt at Champions League glory without goalkeeper Alisson Becker.Liverpool are back in Istanbul for their round of 16 first leg clash against the Turkish side having been beaten here 1-0 during the league stage back in September.Slot's side had to cope with an uncomfortable atmosphere given a relentless stream of whistling from 50,000 home fans inside Rams Park throughout the game.The same is expected on Tuesday evening but the Reds boss believes his players have been steeled by their previous experience.FOLLOW OUR LIVERPOOL FC FACEBOOK PAGE! All the latest news and analysis from Anfield on the Liverpool Echo's dedicated LFC Facebook page"These fans over here are very impressive, we noticed that when we played here," said Slot.
"The good thing is we’ve experienced it already once now. That is a positive thing, though the Galatasaray players experience it every home game."For us it was new.
That was new for me and even for all of my experienced players."The good thing is we’ve already experienced it but we don’t only play against the fans, (we play against) 11 very good players with a very good manager."Alisson was ruled out after suffering a knock during open training shortly before the squad jetted out to Turkey on Monday afternoon.The Brazilian started the defeat in September but suffered a hamstring injury during the second half that kept him on the sidelines for almost two months and saw him replaced by Giorgi Mamardashvili.The Georgian will again deputise in Istanbul but Slot is optimistic Alisson will not have another lengthy spell in the treatment room."Ali was in the session but unfortunately felt something towards the end," said Slot. "People looked at it, we decided together it was not good enough to play tomorrow and was no use of travelling."Of the goalkeeper's chances of making the Premier League clash at home to Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday, Slot added: "There is definitely a chance, yes, as we don’t expect it to be a big thing but it was too much to be available for tomorrow."Florian Wirtz, Milos Kerkez, Jeremie Frimpong and Ibrahima Konate are all likely to return to Liverpool's starting line-up but Federico Chiesa has also not travelled."Federico was not in the (training) session," explained Slot.