Liverpool assistant manager Pepijn Lijnders believes Porto were the only team who “wanted” to draw the Reds in the Champions League quarter-finals.
Liverpool are the only remaining team from last season’s Champions League semi-finalists who are still in the last eight of this campaign’s competition.
They overcame Bayern Munich in the last 16 and would have faced a rematch against Roma in the quarter-finals if Porto had not beaten the Italians.
Jurgen Klopp’s side also beat Porto in 2017/18 in a comfortable last-16 tie, although Jose Mourinho feels it will be much closer this time around.
Lijnders, who spent seven years as a coach with the Portuguese club, working his way up from the under-eights all the way through to the first team, agrees that “revenge” will be on their agenda.
“There was only one club in the last eight that wanted us and that was Porto,” Lijnders told The Times.
“All the others in the last eight wanted to avoid us, but Porto will love the chance to go again against us. I know it because of their mentality.
“Sergio is a motivational coach and he will use that. Motivate is not the right word. It is revenge. They want to set something right.”