Mamadou Sakho reveals true feelings on Liverpool and who he’ll support when Reds meet PSG in the Champions League

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Liverpool face a big challenge on Wednesday as they travel to PSG in the last-16 of the Champions League.

Having finished first and won seven out of eight games in the league phase, the Reds may have been expecting a kinder draw for the first knockout round.

On the contrary, Liverpool have been pitted against the form side in all of Europe.

PSG have won their last 10 matches, scoring 30 goals in the process. It is going to be a real test for Liverpool to stop them.

It has not been often that the two teams have met in the Champions League, with only four previous fixtures between them.

There are also not too many links on the pitch. Only five players have represented both PSG and Liverpool. One of those is Mamadou Sakho and ahead of Wednesday’s game, the centre-back has been speaking his mind.

Mamadou Sakho looking forward to PSG v Liverpool

PSG and Liverpool were the first two clubs of Sakho’s career. Having come through the youth team and gone on to captain the French side, they will always be special to him.

But despite being captain at the time, Sakho left the Parc des Princes for Liverpool in 2013. And although things didn’t end well for him at Anfield, the 35-year-old has told Le Parisien that he will not pick between the Reds and his boyhood club on Wednesday.

“Frankly, it’s really 50-50 between the two and a pleasure to watch,” Sakho says.

“Everything can be decided by an acceleration from [Ousmane] Dembele, [Bradley] Barcola or [Mohamed] Salah. Or an overflow from [Achraf] Hakimi or [Trent] Alexander-Arnold. And the difference, it’s perhaps also the public who can make it.”

READ MORE: What went wrong for Mamadou Sakho at Liverpool?

“The atmosphere at the Parc des Princes is also special,” adds the former France international. “Liverpool’s players will have to be ready to withstand it. And conversely, I already know that the Parisians will remember the return match in Liverpool. Whether they win or lose. Because a match there [Anfield] remains a unique experience.

“When you play there, you don’t forget it. The winner of this opposition will not be the only favourite for the final victory but it will mark everyone’s minds. And my heart will not lean to one side. I will feel as red as blue.”

Sakho speaks warmly about Liverpool

Sakho will forever be remembered at Liverpool as the man who royally upset Jurgen Klopp. Annoyed by his behaviour on a pre-season trip to the USA in 2016, Klopp banished Sakho.

But despite this memory, the no-nonsense centre-back has spoken incredibly warmly of Liverpool, admitting that he still loves the place and the club.

“It is truly a mythical and special arena,” Sakho says of Anfield. “In fact, it is as if there was a special gas in the atmosphere that makes anything possible and nothing is impossible.

“I wasn’t surprised when I arrived because, when I played in Paris, Liverpool was my favourite English team,” he adds. “I loved this club. In fact, in my head, after PSG, there was also Liverpool. I knew that this club had a long history and that impressed me. For a player, it’s necessarily exciting to be part of such a club.”

Going on to praise the ‘Liverpool country’ and hail the traditions of the city and the Kop, Sakho comes across really well ahead of the meeting between his two clubs. YNWA, Mama!