Arne Slot has rejected reported claims from the Paris Saint-Germain squad that Liverpool aren't as good as the Arsenal or Bayern Munich teams who both beat them in the Champions League this season.

And the Reds boss also disagreed with Luis Enrique's assertion that the visitors have nothing to lose when they pitch up at Anfield on Tuesday night aiming to overturn their 1-0 deficit from the first leg of their last-16 tie in Paris last week.

PSG dominated proceedings at the Parc des Princes last week with Alisson Becker earning widespread praise for his performance on the night after Harvey Elliott's 87th-minute had given the visitors a smash-and-grab victory.

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After the game, reports in influential French publication L'Equipe emerged that the PSG players felt the Reds were below the quality of Arsenal and Bayern, who both triumphed against them during the 36-team group stage that Slot's men topped at the end of January.

Slot conceded he had seen the reports in French media but believes such an opinion is formed from the improvements made by the Ligue 1 champions in recent months.

"I think what you mean is some of them (PSG players) have said Arsenal and Bayern Munich were better than us, which is what I have heard," Slot said.

"And I think what that has to do with is PSG have improved in those months and they played away at Arsenal and Bayern in these two games.

"And I saw both of those games and they have improved and changed. They have improved, they have changed. At Arsenal away they were much lower (defensively) and now they take the risk and press all over the pitch and make it one-v-one constantly.

"And it is up to them how they felt. I cannot influence what they felt and I don’t even know if it is true or not but I am hoping they have a different opinion after tomorrow night. I think [we need our best performance of the season] because this is the most complete team we have played so far.

"What I mean by complete is of course we have faced Arsenal and Manchester City and it is not that there are big differences or margins but the quality and intensity they played at.

"Let's be honest here, we are talking about probably the richest club, or maybe there is one richer club that are bit further ahead, but they have so much quality and a great, great manager, because he lets the team play in a way that is not easy and he brings the best out of them.

"He brings an incredible work rate to the team, so we have to be at our best tomorrow. But, for example, we didn’t have ball possession at all, Manchester City away - the other richest club in the world with PSG - and at home we had a completely different performance against City than we had away.

"I wasn’t surprised at all at their performance. They have impressed me a lot. Before we played that game, I watched many games of them because we had a bit more time than normal and I was very impressed by the intensity, the team cohesion and the rotations in the midfield.

"They are such a complete team, such a well managed team and we experienced that last Wednesday. Some people said we played poorly, I don’t agree. I think they played tremendously well. I don’t think we have played a team this season who combined that much quality with intensity.

"But I do think we can play better. I am not saying we were poor or not good at all, but we are a better team than we were last week and that is something we have to prove tomorrow with the help of our fans."

Asked if he agreed with Luis Enrique's assertion, Slot added: "They have a game of football to lose! And we do as well, but they have been in this stage for many years now.

"I think last year they reached the semi-final and we were not even in it, and the season before this was the stage we were knocked out. These teams normally go quite far in Europe.

"I don’t know [if the comments give us extra motivation]. I don’t’ think anyone needs motivation, not their players, not our players, if you play at Anfield in the knockout stages.

"Two of the better teams in Europe, I think there are three, four or five incredible teams in Europe at the moment. Paris Saint-Germain is one of them and we are one of them.

"I don’t think anyone needs any kind of motivation, not our fans, not our players, their players or the staff. We are all looking forward to a game like this and need to be at our best if you play the best."