'It means everything' - Trent on semi-final buzz

Trent Alexander-Arnold will step out onto the Anfield pitch this evening fully aware of what Liverpool featuring in a Champions League semi-final means to the club's supporters.

It is 10 years since the Reds previously reached the last four of Europe's premier cup competition, and the buzz around the city is palpable, according to Trent.

As such, the Scouse teenager is even more determined to reward the support of fans who have waited so long for a taste of glory by helping Jürgen Klopp's team past AS Roma and into the final.

He told UEFA: "It means everything. I think the fans and the club as a whole have been really patient. 

"We’re happy to be back in the semi-finals, it’s where a club like this belongs, and hopefully we’ll be here many more times in the next few years, and we’ll push on to reach the final and challenge to win it.

"[There's] excitement, just pure excitement in the city, I’d say. It’s been 10 years since we’ve been in the semi-finals, so a lot of people have been waiting 10 long years to be back in this type of situation and to be challenging for silverware going into the last couple of weeks of the season.

"It adds a bit more of a buzz around the club knowing that you’re close to possibly winning something.

"You feel a lot more people taking notice of you around the city, and they want you to do well."

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The foundations for Liverpool's 5-1 on aggregate win over Manchester City at the quarter-final stage were laid in a 3-0 first-leg victory at a raucous Anfield.

The Reds are at home first again against Roma, and Alexander-Arnold is hoping the club's supporters can play a big part once more.

He added: "We obviously used the atmosphere to our advantage. It was always going to be a hard place for City to come to, to Anfield on a European night. It’s not like the Premier League games, and I think that’s something City underestimated.

"They thought, 'We’ve been there in the league before, we’re used to it, it might not be that special', but it’s completely different on a Champions League night, and I think it might have surprised them. 

"We used it to our advantage and the manager wanted us to play the way we play. To press them high and to play football, and that’s what we did. 

"We made it as hard as possible for them and they never made any clear-cut chances. That’s what we wanted to do, but it was always going to be hard to limit such a lethal attacking force like Man City. The boys pulled through it though, and the game-plan was executed perfectly.

"I remember when the third goal went in I almost had to pinch myself, because it’s pretty much unheard of, going and getting three goals in the first half of a quarter-final. You start to think, 'Wow, this is a dream come true.'

"You get caught up in the atmosphere and the emotions and it can carry you away, but like I said, the managers and the senior players in the team, while we were running back, were all shouting and telling us to focus, to get ready to go again and not to take our foot off the gas, to keep pushing for more, and that’s what we did."

The 19-year-old also rejected suggestions that he and his teammates will underestimate tonight's opponents after avoiding heavyweights Real Madrid and Bayern Munich in the draw.

He said: "They’re a huge club and a huge team. Obviously, they’ve done really well to get to where they’ve got to, and I think maybe because of the name people might be underestimating them, but that’s not what’s happening here.

"Obviously, they’re in the same situation as we are – we’re all in the semi-finals, you don’t get there by luck, you get there by hard work and grinding out results, and pulling off comebacks like they did. 

"It was a special night for them in Rome, and we’ll be looking at that and analysing what they did well and what they didn’t do so well and how we can beat them over the two legs and reach the final.

"Obviously, the city of Rome plays a big part in our history, especially in the Champions League, so I guess it would be quite fitting if we could go there and secure our place in the final and get to Kyiv and get that step closer to maybe winning the Champions League."

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