Steven Gerrard believes Liverpool don't go into Champions League final as underdogs

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  • Steven Gerrard believes Liverpool have every chance of toppling Real Madrid in the Champions League final and shouldn’t be labelled as underdogs for the Kiev showdown later this month.

    The Kop hero, who was appointed manager of Glasgow Rangers on May 4 in his first big job in the dugout, feels his boyhood club have earned the right to stand toe-to-toe with Los Blancos, a side that are going for a hat-trick of consecutive triumphs.

    “I think we’ve got a really good chance, I wouldn’t say on current form we’re going into the game as underdogs,” the 37-year-old said at a LFC World event presented by Standard Chartered on Thursday at the Westin Dubai Mina Seyahi.

    “But, I suppose, Jurgen Klopp and the boys will want to go in as underdogs because it takes a little bit of pressure off.

    “I think the form they’ve been in, how they’ve performed in the last two games against Roma, especially with Mo Salah (how he’s been playing), I think we go in with every confidence and belief that we can get the job done.”

    Gerrard, of course, captained and inspired the Merseysiders to that famous comeback victory over AC Milan in the 2005 European Cup final, and feels that the Reds will go into the game with the same belief that Rafael Benitez’s men showed in the second-half in Istanbul.

    He added: “We were the underdogs and rightly so against a fantastic Milan side, we went in with confidence and belief and you never give up. I’ve experienced it, you can beat them.”

    After the completion of his commitments with Liverpool and broadcaster BT Sport this month, Gerrard’s four-year deal at Ibrox begins in earnest on June 1.

    He will start his first foray into first-team football management alongside newly-appointed No.2 Gary McAllister.

    The former Scotland midfielder is currently with Gerrard in Dubai until Sunday where the duo will be joined by Steve McManaman on-stage at Barasti to take part in a question and answer session and watch the Reds’ final day of the season clash with Brighton.

    “It’s been a bit of a whirlwind for myself and Gary really,” Gerrard said when recalling the past seven days.

    “It was obviously a very exciting opportunity for myself to manage and the rest of the staff we’ll take with us. We are really looking forward to the challenge, it’s big and has come really quickly since I started coaching with the Liverpool youth sides.”

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