Arsenal defender Pablo Mari has revealed that Liverpool trio Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino are the toughest opponents he has faced.
The 26-year-old only joined the Gunners on loan in January from Brazilian side Flamengo, and he made just two appearances for his new club before the Premier League was suspended due to the coronavirus outbreak.
But it was with Flamengo that Mari faced Liverpool’s front three in the FIFA Club World Cup in Qatar in December.
And during an Ask Me Anything session on Reddit, Mari revealed that the Reds’ clinical front three are the toughest opponents he faced in his career so far.
“I think this moment was the three strikers of Liverpool! Salah, Mane and Firmino,” he said. “It's because of speed, intelligence and their characters. I think these things are most important and make them top players.”
Before adding: “We think we played a really good game there and we know Liverpool in that moment was maybe the best club in the world.
“They won everything and they won every game in the league. They are a really strong team.
“But we had one thing that we thought we could beat them with and that was our mentality.
“We had nothing to lose and everything to win so we could put this mentality in the pitch to try and win against them.
“But it was proved that in one action you can lose the game. But I thought we were fighting really well against them.
“Of course it was a really difficult to play against the front three because you know they are fast, they are strong and they know every player and what to do and they have really good quality.
“Of course it was difficult but I was focused 100% in that game and I know it was a difficult game but I felt like I improved a lot in six months there playing in Flamengo so that I can play against Liverpool and these three players.
“My focus when I arrived in Flamengo was that we knew we would play against a club like Liverpool in this final and that if we improved a lot we could beat them.”
