Liverpool vice-captain James Milner has no intention of allowing their Camp Nou disappointment derail their bid to win the Premier League.
The 3-0 Champions League semi-final first-leg defeat in Barcelona on Wednesday was demoralising not only because the scoreline makes a comeback incredibly tough, but because it showed no reward for their performance at the home of the Catalan giants.
Having kept Lionel Messi quiet for 75 minutes, Liverpool were undone by a late double from the Argentinian and the players now have to pick themselves off the floor for their crucial penultimate domestic match of the season at Newcastle United on Saturday.
Win and they return to the top of the table and the pressure all goes back on City, who face an in-form Leicester on Monday.
And Milner is confident their focus will be spot-on at St James’ Park. “I think we are used to playing games in quick succession and we’ve seen the character in this squad on more than one occasion over the last few years,” he said. “We all know the character that is there.
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We need to be together and bounce back from that. I have no doubt that this team will do that.” Considerable doubts remain, however, over their prospects of bouncing back at home to Barcelona next week.
If they can take any hope it is that Roma, whom Liverpool beat in last year’s semi-final, turned around a three-goal deficit against the Catalans.
Crucially, though, they had an away goal, but still scored three unanswered goals at home. “Obviously it’s possible.
If it’s possible anywhere then it is possible at Anfield,” added the veteran midfielder. “We have seen special European nights there before and big comebacks.
It’s going to be very difficult, we know that. “We have to bounce back quickly from this with a big game at the weekend.
Hopefully we can get a good result there and get a bit of positivity going into next week.”
