Goalkeeper Gulacsi Excited by “Opportunity” to Face Former Club Liverpool

Peter Gulacsi spent parts of six years with Liverpool, signing from MTK Budapest in 2007 on loan as an 18-year-old before joining permanently a year later. The following seasons saw him often in the matchday squad, but he never made a first team appearance.

Along the way there were loans to Hereford, Tranmere, and Hull. Eventually, in 2013, he moved into the Reb Bull system when he joined Salzburg. Two years later, he headed to Leipzig and, the year after that, had established himself as the German club’s starter.

Now, he’s set to face his old side, and he says that h’s looking forward to it—though he maybe wouldn’t have minded not having to face the defending Premier League champions at this stage, regardless Liverpool’s recent struggles with injuries and poor form.

“I’m happy to have the possibility, the opportunity to go back and play against Liverpool,” Gulacsi noted. “But on the other side, we are an ambitious club and, of course, we wanted to have the best possible draw [and] Liverpool is not the easiest of opponents.

“So maybe it could have been a little bit easier, but it’s a big challenge for our club, for our team, and we have one goal of course, which is to qualify for the next round even though we are not the favourites. We also have great quality and we have shown that.”

In Germany, Leipzig are in good form, having won four of their last five league games and being just four points off leaders Bayern Munich—though the Bavarians have a game in hand to go along with their points advantage and remain Bundesliga favourites.

“It’s a really successful season we’ve played so far,” the Hungarian shot stopper added. “[Now] we have nothing to lose. We play against one of the strongest teams in Europe and we just want to give our best and see what happens.”