Preview'The pressure is on us but this is exactly what we want for the players'
Barry Lewtas is hoping his U19s squad can thrive on the pressure when they face Girona in their final game of the UEFA Youth League's league phase.
After a 1-0 loss to Real Madrid in Kirkby last time out, the young Reds are 20th in the table, with the top 22 teams going through.
It is a tight race for the final qualification places, however, and Lewtas' charges need a win in Spain to guarantee progress.
Hosts Girona are unbeaten so far having overcome the likes of Paris Saint-Germain and Feyenoord and they are 10th in the table, two points ahead of the Reds.
Kick-off at Camp De Futbol Municipal De Vidreres is at 11am GMT on Tuesday and you can watch the game live on LFCTV and LFCTV GO.
Read on as U19s head coach Lewtas speaks with Liverpoolfc.com ahead of the match…
On the main aim of trying to get the win…
A hundred per cent. I think the reality is, whatever we needed we would be heading to Girona trying to win the game, as we always do. I don't think at this level you are looking to do anything else, so for us the kind of preparation and the intent to go and win a game of football remains. The good thing is for these boys and their development we are under pressure to go and get a result, which is great. That is part of the competition as well in terms of trying to get boys to understand the demands of the game and it's something we are looking forward to.
On why playing under pressure is so important for these players…
As they get a little bit older that level of pressure just needs to dial up slightly. Some of these boys are certainly closer to first-team football than where they were five years ago, when the pressure was a lot less. First and foremost, we know we need to play well over there and if we play well then we have a good chance of winning the game. We need to get the first bit right and that's making sure we perform.
On the positives to take from the narrow loss to Real and just needing to be more clinical…
It was two good teams, and we didn't start well enough and conceded early. When you play against these good teams there's no given right you will get back into it. We couldn't quite get that goal, we did create chances to score but didn't and that can happen. I think we did well to work our way back into the game and certainly for us that gives us a lot of confidence going into this game. On that particular day we fell short, we know that, and we want to try to be better again in Girona.
On what he is expecting from Girona…
One thing is for sure when I look at the games we play in, it has certainly been a demanding group, which is great in terms of how difficult these games have been. For us, the positive is with a game to go we have a chance of qualifying. I've been in this situation before in this competition in terms of trying to top the group and needing something from the final game. It's nothing different and in terms of the opposition, we know they are going to be a good team. They are a couple of points ahead of us and have done well throughout the group and haven't lost a game. They will be a tough team to play against but we are certainly ready.
We have produced some really good performances and they have been getting better every game. We fell short with the result against Real Madrid but there was a lot of positives to take from it. We need to try to build on our last performance and try to be the best version of ourselves to try to get that win in Girona.
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