Mamadou Sakho is not siding with either of his former clubs as Paris Saint-Germain and Liverpool get set to do battle in the Champions League this week.
PSG booked its place in the last 16 by thrashing fellow French outfit Brest 10-0 on aggregate in the competition's play-off round, while Liverpool bypassed the play-off by virtue of its first-place finish in the league phase.
Former France international Sakho started his career at PSG before joining Liverpool and he claimed he did not have a favorite team heading into Wednesday's meeting at the Parc des Princes.
“Frankly, it’s really 50-50 between the two and a pleasure to watch,” Sakho told Le Parisien. “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.
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“The atmosphere at the Parc des Princes is also special. 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.”
Ahead of the return tie next week, Sakho said of Anfield: “It is truly a mythical and special arena. 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. 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.”
