RALPH Hasenhuttl has declared Saints’ final home game of the season as “our Champions League final”, as they prepare to face quadruple-chasing Liverpool.
Saints welcome Jurgen Klopp’s FA Cup and EFL Cup winners to St Mary’s, with the Merseyside outfit knowing a win is needed to keep their Premier League title hopes alive.
Manchester City, who have just one game left to play to Liverpool’s two, are four points clear at the summit of the top-flight – but do not have a European final to look forward to this month.
Hasenhuttl has not played down the importance of the match, but for Saints. After the Austrian was booed off during the 3-0 defeat to Brentford, he wants to leave the right impression on the home supporters.
“I must say that we are, not under pressure because we are safe in the league, but we want to show we have a different face. This must be motivation enough for us”, he said.
“It is maybe the most difficult game at home, we have shown in the past that we can be committed to these games.
“I remember the games at home this season against the big clubs, against Tottenham when we were one man down, against Arsenal when we did a fantastic job, against Man City we have drawn, Man United we have drawn.
“We have shown that, together, we can achieve something very big. This is what we need Tuesday evening. They (the players) know what team they are facing, they know how tough it is, they know on what run of form they are.
“Even if they have some injuries maybe, they all know how tough it is against the Champions League finalists. It is our Champions League final, if you want. We will go for this with everything we have and we will do everything to make them proud.”
Saints will look to repeat the trick of a 1-0 win over Klopp’s charges that came at St Mary’s last season, through former talisman Danny Ings’ early opener.
“I haven’t won that often against Jurgen so it was a special moment for me,” Hasenhuttl added.
“We had a similar way of playing football for a long time and we have a big respect for everybody, we know the job they do is amazing and if you end up against such a top team with a win at home then this is always impressive.
“And it was a pity that we had no supporters in the stands but this time it will be full and everybody will watch this game, everybody will look at this game and this is, for us, a big motivation and we know that we have to be at our best.
“It's still a big game coming up for us now and everybody is focused on this game and everybody wants to play this game.”
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