Widely considered Liverpool’s player of the season, Dominik Szoboszlai found himself apologizing to the club supporters on Monday for what he described as a “misunderstanding.”
The midfielder has been in outstanding form in a difficult season for Liverpool — scoring 12 goals including stunning strikes against Arsenal and Manchester City.
But his reaction after the 4-0 FA Cup loss to City this month — shrugging, raising his arms and clapping towards away fans — was interpreted by some as sarcasm when video footage was shared on social media.
He was ushered away by teammate Federico Chiesa as boos rang around the away end at Etihad Stadium.
Ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League quarterfinal second leg against Paris Saint-Germain, Szoboszlai tried to put the record straight.
“Maybe it was a misunderstanding between me and the fans,” he said. “I didn’t mean it in a bad way. I know what the fans mean to this club and what the club means to the fans.
“We do everything for the fans as they do for us. If it was a misunderstanding then I apologize. I’m not feeling better than them, I feel exactly the same as they do. I am with them, we are with them and hopefully they are with us as well.”
Liverpool trails 2-0 after the first leg in Paris and is hoping for a famous turnaround against the defending European champion.
In the 2019 semifinals, the Merseyside club routed Barcelona 4-0 at Anfield after losing the first leg 3-0.
It will take something similarly heroic against PSG, which totally dominated the first leg in Paris last week.
“There is a belief that we can do special things tomorrow but we need to be very, very, very special tomorrow to achieve that because we are playing against the champions of Europe,” manager Arne Slot said. “We know we need an exceptional performance to go through to the next round.”
PSG coach Luis Enrique warned his team against thinking the job was done at 2-0.
“You need to be really careful, there could be pitfalls and it could be a trap,” he said. “Everyone says, ‘You won (the first leg) easily and you were much better than (the) opposition.’ It might be the case but things can change so quickly in a football match.”
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James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
