It was almost as though Arne Slot and Luis Enrique were attempting to kill each other with kindness. As anticipation grew regards Liverpool’s Champions League showdown at Paris Saint-Germain, so increased the compliments.
While Slot was effusive with his praise of the French champions, PSG boss Luis Enrique had gone one better earlier in the day by declaring the Reds as Europe’s best team.
For his Anfield counterpart, that was a little too much. And when probed on the matter deep in the bowels of the Parc des Princes on Tuesday evening, Slot felt the need to make a salient point.
“It's a nice compliment to get, but the best team in Europe has to win the Champions League but we are far away from that, starting with a very difficult game tomorrow and then all the difficult ones that are coming up because we have seen the draw,” came the response.
"I think the best team in Europe at the moment is still Real Madrid as they won this competition last season.
“Someone else can say something different but, for us, we first have to win it before we can say it.”
If an attempt to lessen the burden of expectation on his team having finished top of the revamped Champions League table, it perhaps wasn’t necessary given they were already tempered by the draw that pitted them against in-form PSG.
Given, for example, Aston Villa were given a far easier tie for finishing seven places below Liverpool, there could be reason for disgruntlement from Slot. But he prefers to embrace the challenge.
"We could only have (faced) two (teams): Benfica or PSG,” he says. “Although I like Benfica a lot, everyone who has watched football in the last few months could have told you that maybe we would have preferred to play Benfica instead of PSG. But this is also a great fixture to play.
"It's a great stadium to play in. If you play at Liverpool, you want to play in big games and this is definitely a big game for us. We have to accept the draw and both teams are facing a very strong opponent.
"PSG are one of best teams and that could happen in the old format as well.”
Slot adds: “It's a great fixture to look forward to. Both teams scored so many goals this season. The ideas are quite similar, both teams like to have the ball and work really hard without it. Interesting fixture.”
For the French journalists present at the press conference, much of the concentration was on not only PSG but their domestic league as a whole.
And, keeping with the narrative, Slot opted to praise the locals.
"I rate the French league quite high as I've played quite a lot against French team,” he says. “It's clear French teams have done well in the past and the French national team is one of the best there is in the world.
“PSG for sure deserve a lot of credit for what they are doing."
