Liverpool star Virgil van Dijk is braced for a "big fight" against Bayern Munich as the Reds look to reach the Champions League quarter-finals.

Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool and Bayern played out a goalless draw in the opening leg of their last-16 tie at Anfield last month.

Van Dijk missed Bayern's visit to Merseyside through suspension but the Dutch centre-back will return for Wednesday's trip to Bavaria.

Runners-up to Real Madrid in the Champions League last season, Liverpool lost all three away matches in the group stage this term and Van Dijk knows the Reds must improve at Allianz Arena.

"It is going to be an exciting tie," said Van Dijk. "They played very well here, kept it tight especially at the back and obviously showed us a lot of respect.

"They changed a bit the way they played I think, so we need to be up for a big fight because they are probably going to come all in, especially in the beginning.

"It is going to be tough and we need to do better than we did in the last away games in the Champions League.

"The group stage games were not as good as we wanted but we got through to the knockout phase. Now we have a 0-0 and we want to do everything that is possible to get through. We know it is going to be a very hard and tough game."

"Sometimes you have to know how to manage games because at times it is going to be very hard and we will need to be patient, ready for what is coming," Van Dijk added. "There will be times when it is going to be very tough and we are going to be under pressure because they have a lot of quality and they showed that.

"But we will definitely have our own moments because of the quality we have as well. Everyone can see how tough it is already in the Champions League. The situation is we have a 0-0 to start with and hopefully we can get the job done."