“On the matchday when we came here it was sunny, but when we arrived in the evening the pitch had been watered.
“We were surprised and we conceded three goals in 20 minutes to get eliminated.
“They had many famous players - Toshack, Dalglish, Clemence. We still have positive memories of Liverpool from that time in Trabzon but, personally, I am a Manchester United fan!”
Trabzonspor, the Turkish cup winners, are perhaps the country’s most celebrated club from outside Istanbul.
Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson believes they were the toughest of the non-seeded teams the Reds could have drawn.
Gunes is looking forward to pitting his wits against the five-time European champions with a place in the Europa League group stage at stake.
He said: “We are going to play against a big brand of European football and it will be a tough game but, if we deserve to have a place in European football, we should be ready for these kind of difficult games.
“We are ready for a tough challenge and all kinds of conditions.”
