Liverpool were unlucky losers in Champions League showdown vs. PSG, but clearly the better team won

Well, I hope you enjoyed that. The Champions League might not get any better than this between now and Munich. Over three and a half hours, there was nothing to settle the two best teams in the field but a battle of nerves from 12 yards out.

It was those of Darwin Nunez and Curtis Jones that crumbled, the top seeds crashing out of a competition that they had seemed strong favorites for right the way through the group stage. For all the difficulties that Paris Saint-Germain have just given them, this result should do nothing to disabuse anyone of the idea that Liverpool really could have won the Champions League. If Gianluigi Donnarumma were a bit shorter, if Nunez had gone a little higher or lower, they would thoroughly merit the favorites tag.

Over the course of this tie, the better team won. PSG’s pinnacle in the first leg was exhilarating, and into the final moments, it was Luis Enrique’s men who looked the fresher and more likely to find the winner. Still, the fact that some form of justice was done through the medium of penalties does not mean that Liverpool were anything other than unfortunate to have been drawn with one of this competition’s gold-plated contenders.

It might be said that Liverpool rode their luck in the first leg. It might equally be said that they have employed the best goalkeeper in the world for nearly seven years, precisely so that when Khvicha Kvaratskhelia rained fire on their goal, Liverpool did not buckle. Anyway, some of the fortunes that came their way in the Parc des Princes was redressed in the first 90 minutes at Anfield. The expected goals (xG) might paint a picture of Parisian dominance but when Ousmane Dembele taps into an empty net from three yards out, your xG is going to look a little inflated.

Certainly, there were moments for the visitors but there was a whole wave of them for Liverpool too, starting with a slightly too nonchalant finish by Mohamed Salah, blocked to safety by Nuno Mendes, and ending with the Donnarumma defiance, setting the stage for his shootout heroics. 

“After 90 minutes, it felt clear to me that we deserved more than to be 1-0 down,” said Arne Slot. “We played the perfect game and didn’t score.”

There will be time for Slot to pick the holes in his side’s performances across the two legs. He will certainly need more of it than many might expect. The simple reality is that if Liverpool had met most of the field in the last 16 they’d have been cruising through, even allowing for their wobble early in the tie. Only the best could beat this team. Perhaps that is what PSG are.

Even if they were never behind in the tie until the shootout, Slot has been obliged to be the more reactive coach. For 45 minutes, his side were cooked as English league leaders are not supposed to be at this stage of the competition, at least not when they have not had a case of the Pep Guardiola galaxy brains. In the Parc des Princes, the Liverpool boss made the necessary adjustments that would quell PSG’s incursions into the penalty area. Alisson might still have had to make some more outstanding saves — the 17 that he ended this tie with is more than Arsenal’s David Raya has made across the entire 2024-25 Champions League — but they were off stunning strikes from range.

Liverpool would never have considered such caution in front of the Kop. It was to Slot’s enormous credit that one of the first big tests of his European credentials as manager of this club saw his side play in a fashion that looked so redolent of his predecessor. In the first half in particular, the hosts were more of a Jurgen Klopp team than they had often been on many occasions in the last few years.

The remorseless aggression of their press meant that for the first 10 minutes, neither Dembele nor Bradley Barcola had a serious sniff at possession. The red wall forced PSG deeper and deeper, the high turnovers coming with remarkable frequency. Liverpool looked bigger, stronger and more mobile.

Such ferocity meant taking risks, the sort that Klopp would be more at ease with than Slot has seemed to be so far in his tenure. A bit of caution went out of Liverpool’s game as they went hunting for possession and that meant abandoning coverage of the central space in front of the back four. Dembele only needed to spot it once, darting into the space like a true false nine, slipping Barcola through with a fine pass and sniffing out a poacher’s chance when Ibrahima Konate had no choice but to dive in front of a cross.

Liverpool were not really taken out of their stride by the tie’s equalizer. They were still prepared to gamble on Barcola piercing their high line, as the game wore on they slowed down the intensity but tightened their grip. A tight offside by Diogo Jota just before Trent Alexander-Arnold forced a string of chances that resulted in Dominik Szoboszlai turning the ball in, more excellent blocks from the obdurate Willian Pacho: any of these moments could have broken the Reds’ way.

After 120 grueling and fruitless minutes, the fear will rightly be that this defeat will bleed into Sunday. Of all the neutrals entranced by this, few could have been crying out for one more minute of stoppage time, a few more penalties as loudly as those of a Newcastle persuasion. It will take a great deal for Slot to physically and emotionally raise his players for Sunday’s EFL Cup final. Trent Alexander-Arnold’s status must be in serious doubt after he was forced to limp off with what appeared an ankle injury. The best-case scenario for Ibrahima Konate might just be a cramp. He won’t be the only one feeling the exertions of Tuesday for days to come.

If this does indeed become the week when a treble becomes ‘just’ a title then, it may lead to a curious tale being told about Liverpool’s season, a sense of missed opportunity given the procession that the Premier League has become. That would be harsh indeed on Slot, who proved himself to be more than capable of adapting to the demands of a high-grade European tie. On another occasion, it might have swung their way, just as it might PSG’s in those early exchanges. That is what made this a true clash of titans, one that would have been worthy of deciding any stage of this competition. It is only a pity that we will not get to see these two go at it again.