Florian Wirtz has rejected claims by Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk that the team gave up during Saturday's 4-0 FA Cup defeat against Manchester City, but said that a failure to perform for the full 90 minutes against Paris Saint-Germain will mean they have "no chance" in Wednesday's Champions League quarterfinal first leg.
Liverpool face last season's Champions League winners in Paris just four days after their FA Cup humiliation at the Etihad -- a game that saw thousands of Reds' supporters leave the ground early due to the abject performance of Arne Slot's players.
After the defeat, defender Van Dijk said: "You shouldn't give up and that's maybe, at a certain point, what happened."
But speaking in Paris ahead of the game, midfielder Wirtz said that the players continued to create chances against City, despite the scoreline against Pep Guardiola's side.
"I didn't know about this that he [Van Dijk] said, but I think I would not agree directly because we still tried to create chances to turn the game around," Wirtz told reporters. "Of course, when the game gets longer and in the 80th minute or something and you are 3-0 back, it is mentally also difficult to go and go and go and we just try to give our best in the game.
"When it was 3-0 or 4-0, we had still a few chances, but it is not our standards that we lose 4-0 against City."
Wirtz, a £116 million ($154 million) summer signing from Bayer Leverkusen, said that Liverpool must perform better against PSG, however, to have any hope of keeping the tie alive going into next week's second-leg at Anfield.
"Of course, we need tomorrow 90 minutes full energy and commitment, otherwise we will have no chance," he said. "We need 90 minutes of being together as a team, also in difficult moments.
"If we concede, we have to stick together and believe we can still win this game and also we still have a second game at home.
"It is a very big competition, Champions League games are always special, so we try to enjoy it and through this round now.
"We know it is difficult because the best teams in the world are playing Champions League, but it is good to play against these teams and I think we have shown this season that we are good in big games, especially in Champions League games.
"We believe in ourselves, we have a good group with good characters and great players, also a good manager who tries to prepare us good for the game.
"The second game at home is maybe an advantage, so we try to do our best and come with a good result to Anfield."
Liverpool manager Arne Slot, who said £125 million ($166 million) forward Alexander Isak is now fit to be on the substitutes' bench after a four-month broken leg absence, is under increasing pressure due to the team's failure to build on last season's Premier League title success.
The Champions League is Liverpool's only remaining chance of silverware this season, but Slot said that the club's history in the competition -- Liverpool are six-time winners -- offers proof that they can salvage something from this campaign.
"That is completely true that performances and results have been inconsistent the whole season," Slot said. "But the answer lies in the history of Liverpool.
"This club has always shown in tough moments that they stand up again. We have stood up a few times this season, but then fallen down again.
"This club has shown many things we can do special things in difficult circumstance, so the answer is in the history of Liverpool, but it is easier said than done.
"We have shown far too many times this season that we have phases in the game, but this group has shown many time to come back from setbacks and this club has done it many more times.
"Apart from the quality my team has, we have shown many times this season that we are able to compete with the best teams in Europe, with the exception of two games at the Etihad."