Liverpool star Joe Gomez warns Atletico Madrid: ‘Let’s see how you cope with Anfield!’

Joe Gomez has warned Atletico Madrid that the Anfield atmosphere will have a major role to play in deciding their Champions League fate.

Liverpool will go into the second leg of the sides' last-16 tie trailing 1-0 on aggregate after suffering a rare but deserved defeat in the Spanish capital.

Backed by a partisan crowd at the Wanda Metropolitano, Diego Simeone's men produced a defensive masterclass to see out a win earned through Saul Niguez's early strike.

But Gomez expects to benefit from similarly passionate home support on Merseyside when the teams face off for a second time, and can only see that making life harder for Atleti.

He said: "It’s halfway done. We’ve come back from bigger deficits, and the second leg is at Anfield so… "I think there are positives to take. Obviously losing is not something we’ve got into the habit of, but we dominated the majority of the game.

"They made it difficult, they played to their strengths, breaking up the game, going down and using the atmosphere. We’ll do the same at Anfield, we’ll use our atmosphere and our supporters in the same way.

"We have to stay patient. We had our chances to be fair, and if one of those goes in, it’s a different outcome. We’ll continue to do what we do, play with the same intensity and with our atmosphere that adds to things. We’ll see how they cope with it.

"Until then, our focus is on the next one and when it [second leg] comes around, we’ll be ready."

Speaking after the match, Jurgen Klopp revealed that he felt compelled to withdraw Sadio Mane at half-time over fears that theatrics from the hosts might earn his No.10 a second yellow card.

Asked about the performance of referee Szymon Marciniak, who previously attracted the manager's ire after Liverpool's 2-1 defeat at Paris Saint-Germain last season, Gomez added: “European football is different, and referees are different.

"It’s frustrating because we’re all competitors and it’s annoying when you give your all and then the ref does something you don’t think is right. We’re going to compete, but if it’s taken out of our hands by the atmosphere or their reactions or whatever, we don’t want to let that affect the game.

"We’ve just got to stick to our gameplan, play our way. The atmosphere plays a part in certain moments when the crowd is jeering or booing, it doesn’t help. But it’ll be a different case at Anfield.”

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