Former Liverpool attacker Steve McManaman makes Real Madrid 'pressure' admission

Former Reds star Steve McManaman has compared the pressure of playing for Liverpool with Real Madrid and said he ‘did not feel pressure’ while in Spain.

The Bootle-born-winger scored 66 goals in 364 appearances for Liverpool from 1990-1999 and won one FA Cup and a League Cup before his transfer to Madrid in 1999. While at Los Blancos he scored 14 goals in 158 appearances over a four year period and enjoyed a hugely decorated spell at the club. He was a Champions League and La Liga winner twice, while he also won one UEFA Super Cup and another Spanish Super Cup.

Speaking before Real’s remarkable 6-5 aggregate win over Man City at the Bernabeu on Wednesday where the Spanish side won 3-1 on the evening, McManaman believed his time at Anfield prepared him for playing for Marid. He told BT Sport: “I did not feel it [pressure] because I had been at a very big club in Liverpool, and that the start of every season was dominated by winning trophies. That pressure was always with you, but that is with every big team these days, you have to perform, you have to get trophies every year, whether you do that is another thing. When I came here [Real Madrid] it was exactly the same. The season before I came, they finished second and trophyless so there was a huge problem and they needed to deliver a trophy.”

Liverpool will face Real Madrid on Saturday 28 May in Paris at the Stade de France. It is a repeat of the 2018 final in Kiev and the Reds will be hoping to atone for the 3-1 loss on that occasion as they continue their quest for a remarkable quadruple.