Liverpool ready for Brighton 'fight' despite lack of rest, says Slot

Arne Slot insisted Liverpool will be ready for a "fight" against Brighton on Saturday, despite their lack of rest between fixtures.

The Reds qualified for the last eight of the Champions League with a 4-0 win over Galatasaray on Wednesday, securing a 4-1 aggregate victory.

Meanwhile, in the Premier League, Liverpool drew 1-1 with Tottenham last weekend as they missed the chance to leapfrog Aston Villa into fourth place.

Ahead of their trip to the Amex Stadium, Slot, who revealed Mohamed Salah will not be available for the game, is expecting a tough challenge due to Brighton's style of play.

"It's really nice, it's always really nice," said Slot when asked about Brighton's tactics.

"You'll probably say, 'Yeah, you always [have] something to complain [about]'. But I would prefer to face a team now that maybe did this [raises fists] a little bit more!

"But if we would have had a week of rest, then please bring us a fight like that.

"We're the only team, by the way – and that's not complaining, that's just being realistic – that played on Tuesday or Wednesday in Europe and all the [other] teams [that played midweek] are playing on Sunday, and we are the lucky ones that have to play 12.30 [am] away game against one of the most intense teams in the league.

"But we will be ready for it."

Brighton returned to winning ways last time out with a 1-0 victory against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.

That win kept the Seagulls in the hunt for a European place, and Fabian Hurzeler revealed the team are treating every game like "it's a final" in the run-in.

"I think I never stopped thinking about the process. I never stopped thinking about how can I improve the team, how we can improve as a club, how we can improve on and off the pitch," said the Brighton boss.

"That's an ongoing process. I always emphasise how my team plays, how we stick together, how they react to lows, how they react to highs.

"It's very important to stay predictable, to keep working hard, to keep the standards high. We do this at the moment well, and then we can see what happens at the end of the season.

"But the Premier League is unpredictable at the moment. So we go game by game. We need to play every game like it’s the last game of the season, like it's a final. That's our approach – then we see what happens."

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