Liverpool team vs Porto revealed ahead of Champions League clash

[PHOTO: COURTESY]

Midfielder Emre Can is suspended for Liverpool's Champions League last-16 first leg tie in Porto.

Defender Joe Gomez has travelled with the squad after missing the last two matches with a knee injury while record signing Virgil van Dijk is set for his first appearance in the competition for the club he joined in January.

Loris Karius keeps his place with manager Jurgen Klopp abandoning his group stage policy of rotating his goalkeepers from Premier League to European games.

Klopp insists Liverpool can compete with Europe's best even if no-one is giving his side much of a chance in the Champions League.

[PHOTO: COURTESY]

"I know it already we can compete with them, I don't have to look at them," Klopp said.

"I think probably the strongest football team in this moment in Europe is Manchester City and we played them twice already at the highest level (they lost the first encounter 5-0 after having Sadio Mane sent off in the first half).

"The Premier League is a little different but if we meet them (City) then we could beat them. That is how it is.

"But it is not important right now. We are in Porto and that is the only thing.

"We can make one mistake, that is how it is in life. And of course we as a team we will never do that."

Provisional starting XI: Karius, Gomez, Van Dijk, Lovren, Robertson, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Henderson, Milner, Salah, Firmino, Mane