Former Liverpool great John Barnes has claimed that his former side are now the most feared team in Europe.
The Reds went on an extraordinary run to the Champions League final last season, before being topped by Real Madrid in the showcase event, and will aim to go one better despite a tough group pitting them against Paris Saint-Germain, Napoli and Red Star Belgrade.
Barnes expects Jurgen Klopp’s team to progress, however: “It could have been easier or it could have been harder,” the former England ace told talkSPORT’s Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast. “In Napoli and PSG they have two very good sides; though Napoli probably are not as strong as they were a couple of years ago.
“But the thing with Liverpool is that more people fear Liverpool now than I think any other team in Europe, in a one off [fixture].
“Of course we lost in the Champions League final, but if you look at the passion the team played with, the aggression and the intensity, then teams wouldn’t want to play Liverpool.”
OPINION
Obviously there’s no way of measuring which football team is the most feared, but Liverpool must be up there at the moment. The way they simply blitz teams, as they did last season to Maribor, Spartak Moscow and Porto in the Champions League, is mind-blowing at times. No defender wants to come up against this Liverpool team; not with Mohamed Salah operating on the higher plain on which he does, not with Roberto Firmino linking play, not with Sadio Mane buzzing about causing havoc. Having said that, are they the most feared team in Europe? Surely you’d have to give that title to the winner of four of the last five Champions League’s. Even without Cristiano Ronaldo, Real Madrid are the team to beat this season. Liverpool are close in the fear scale, surely, but must still fall below the giants of Madrid. They probably land in a second tier, alongside Manchester City, Bayern Munich and Juventus. Barnes isn’t far off though, but a bit of home team bias might be shining through here.
