Liverpool have the perfect chance to get Tuesday’s loss against PSG out of their system with a Wembley cup final on Sunday.
The game itself could hardly have been worse preparation for the Reds, with a 120-minute slog against the French champions ending in a penalty shootout defeat.
To rub salt in the wounds, Trent Alexander-Arnold was injured and will miss the Carabao Cup final, while Ibrahima Konate was also in need of being taken off before the end.
All in all, it was a bad – and costly – night for Liverpool at Anfield. Over the years, they have been few and far between, with the famous old stadium the scene for some of the Reds greatest ever matches.
But although it is often lauded for its atmosphere, there have been some claims that this was missing on Tuesday. Wayne Rooney was not impressed with Anfield having been covering the game as a pundit for Amazon Prime.
Alan Shearer was also on duty in the commentary box for Amazon, though, and according to Shearer, Rooney is wrong about the atmosphere.
Alan Shearer backs Anfield atmosphere
Shearer loves being at Anfield. The former Blackburn Rovers striker won a Premier League title at the ground and has a special affinity for it.
Rooney, it’s fair to say, does not. A legend at both Everton and Man United, there is no love lost between the Scouser and the top club of his home city.
As a result, Rooney’s claim that he had expected more from his first visit to Anfield on a European night felt more than a little disingenuous.
And, asked how he felt the atmosphere had been by Gary Lineker on The Rest Is Football, Shearer claimed that it had been ‘bloody amazing.’
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“The atmosphere was brilliant,” said he pundit. “It is fantastic at Anfield on European nights, it’s bloody amazing.”
“But, and it’s a big but, if Liverpool don’t score within the first ten or 15 minutes, and that is I think part of the opposition’s job, to try your best to quieten the crowd. And Liverpool had a couple of big chances.
“Mo Salah missed one, Mendes cleared it off the line and once they didn’t score you start to think ‘uh oh’ and then they get hit on the break. But it was great to begin with. I thought it was great to be there, great football from two really good teams.”
What did Rooney actually say?
Given that Rooney has admitted to openly hating Liverpool, it makes little sense to put him on Reds’ games at all.
The 39-year-old offers little cutting edge insight and could easily be replaced with someone who does not clearly want Liverpool to lose.
Obviously, debates about the atmosphere at Anfield have been ongoing for a long while now and everyone is entitled to their opinion.
But, speaking on The Overlap on Thursday, you just got the impression that Rooney was simply playing to his crowd, which included fellow United legends Gary Neville and Roy Keane.
“I thought it would be better. That was my first European game at Anfield and I thought it would have been a lot better,” he said. First and last, hopefully, Wayne.