‘We’ll be struggling’: £41m Liverpool ace sends warning to Klopp’s men ahead of UCL clash

Follow us on Google Discover

Diogo Jota expects a tough game when Liverpool visit Porto in the Champions League on Tuesday, and urges Jurgen Klopp’s side to forget about past results, via LiverpoolFC.com.

The Anfield natives are unbeaten across their previous eight meetings with the Portuguese side, taking five wins and three draws. They last met in the quarter-final of the 2018/19 edition of the Champions League, on route to lifting the title.

Liverpool won both meetings with Porto that season with a 6-1 aggregate score, including a 4-1 result in Portugal. But Jota does not expect a similar performance this week, yet rather a similar one that Chelsea faced last term.

Thomas Tuchel’s 2020/21 Champions League title-winning side beat Porto 2-1 on aggregate in the quarter-final, after losing 1-0 at home. The Dragoes had already eliminated Juventus in the Last 16, and finished second to Manchester City in the group stage.

Jota expects tough Porto test for Liverpool

Jota cannot say for sure if Porto will be reeling from their recent encounters with Liverpool when they meet on Tuesday. But the £41m forward expects a tough game regardless for Klopp’s men when they strive to build on an opening night win at home to AC Milan.

“It’s hard to say,” Jota said. “I think me, not only me, but I follow Porto obviously and I know those results weren’t good for Porto, and they didn’t show the real difference between the teams. Mainly playing at the Dragao is never easy for the away teams. So, I know if we let ourselves go there thinking about those results, we’ll be struggling.

“I would say it will be closer to the team that came up against Chelsea [in the Champions League last season]. Obviously, Porto’s objective in the games they lost to Liverpool, they intended to give a difficult game, but that’s football. Sometimes we can’t impose our game plan, sometimes we can. But I’m sure it will be a tough game tomorrow.”

Jota played 71-minutes of Liverpool’s win over AC Milan and has featured eight times in the Champions League for Porto. He scored once in the competition against Leicester City while on from Atletico Madrid in 2016/17, before joining Wolves.