Roma players trained on Tuesday ahead of their Champions League semifinal second leg wearing shirts bearing the words “Forza Sean” in support of injured Liverpool fan Sean Cox.

The 53-year-old Irishman was attacked by Roman hooligans outside Anfield before Liverpool’s 5-2 first-leg win last week and is still in a serious condition in hospital.

Klopp said the T-shirts were “a great, great, great gesture”.

“I already thought Roma showed a great gesture when training at Anfield and placing flowers at the memorial for the 96,” he said, referring to the victims of the 1989 Hillsborough stadium disaster

“These two teams deserve to be here because of football, because they show the maximum respect for the other side.”

The Liverpool boss said he hoped Wednesday night’s match (at 1:45am Cambodian time) would take place in the right atmosphere.

“It’s good that we spoke about it, showed Sean’s family our support but I really hope that everybody understood that tomorrow in this beautiful city, with good weather, that everyone can walk to the stadium and look forward to an intense, fantastic and very important football game.

“I really hope that will be possible.”

Roma coach Eusebio Di Francesco said earlier on Tuesday that he was “shoulder-to-shoulder with Sean Cox and his family”.

Two Italian men have been charged over the attack.

Three thousand police officers have been deployed in the Italian capital to avoid a repeat of the ugly scenes seen on Merseyside, with around 5,000 Liverpool supporters expected to travel to the city.