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Mertens mocks 'This is Anfield' sign ahead of Liverpool vs Napoli tie

  /  Will_Lee_15

Napoli forward Dries Mertens may have risked the wrath of Anfield ahead of Tuesday night's Champions League tie against Liverpool.

The Reds need to beat the Italian side either 1-0 or by two clear goals to progress to the last-16, with another raucous Anfield atmosphere expected. The occasion promises to be a hugely different one to the last time Mertens played at Anfield.

The Belgium international was part of the FC Utrecht team that drew 0-0 with Roy Hodgson's Liverpool in a dead rubber Europa League group game in December 2010.

The likes of Brad Jones, Danny Wilson, Christian Poulsen, Milan Jovanovic and Nathan Eccleston started that game, and Mertens says he wasn't impressed with an aspect of Anfield he thought would be bigger.

"My strongest memory is that they have a sign saying 'This is Anfield' and everyone was talking about it, so I was thinking it's very big, you know," Mertens told The Times.

"I came through the tunnel and I asked, 'Where is the thing?' and they said you missed it and I hadn't noticed it.

"So in the second half, I'm looking at this small thing and asking, 'is this so special?'"