'Liverpool aware of Hazard-like Insigne'

By Football Italia staff

Trent Alexander-Arnold is confident Liverpool have learnt from their defeat to Napoli last season and warns Lorenzo Insigne is “like Eden Hazard”.

Liverpool lost 1-0 to Napoli in the 2018-19 Champions League group stage, but Alexander-Arnold’s side will have a shot at redemption this evening.

“We know that being able to keep clean sheets and being able to win games away from home are massively important - especially in the Champions League when you’ve probably only got one or two chances to beat teams and get results,” the right-back told The Mirror.

“You’re playing in Europe’s elite, you’re going to get less chances than what you do in the Premier League so it’s about maximising those chances and minimalising the opposition.

“It was a tough game (last season). We were really stretched as a side, we weren’t defending properly. We just weren’t organised at all.

“We really struggled to get to grips with the game and we were punished late doors. We probably thought that we’d done enough to get the point.

“With the last five minutes to go, you’re probably thinking ‘we’ve got away with one here’ and then you switch off for a minute, and they creep in with a last-minute goal and you’re gutted you’re going home with no points.

“It’s one of those we’ll learn from it, we’ll push forward and hopefully go there and be able to get a better result than we did last year.”

Insigne scored the goal that secured the win for the Partenopei, and the 20-year-old is wary of the threat posed by the forward.

“Obviously he’s a really good player. He’s someone who really helps them play football, understands the way that they want to play, really encourages the team to play out, able to hit [it to] him and he’ll be able to hold the ball up.

“He’s a really tricky player, really strong, fast, quite agile. He’s kind of like Eden Hazard I’d say, that type of player who is tricky to get hold of and mark.

“Coming up against him is always a tough test but they are the things that you expect in the Champions League.

“He’s a great player, probably a little bit underrated in terms of the respect and the plaudits that he gets. But he’s a real fantastic player.

“I think his teammates will say the same and the people that come up against him will say how tricky he is to actually nullify.

“He’s a good player, they’ve got many a good player and we need to be ready for that.”

Watch Serie A live in the UK on Premier Sports for just £9.99 per month including live LaLiga, Eredivisie, Scottish Cup Football and more. Visit: https://www.premiersports.com/subscribenow