Well, I hope you enjoyed that. The Champions League may not be better than this between now and Munich. More than three and a half hours, there was nothing to calm the two best teams in the field, but a nerve battle from 12 yards.
It was those of Darwin Núñez and Curtis Jones who collapsed, the main seeds crashed through a competition that seemed strong favorites for the way through the group stage. Despite all the difficulties that Paris Saint-Germain has just given them, this result should not do anything to deactivate anyone from the idea that Liverpool could really have won the Champions League. If Gianluigi Donnarumma was a little shorter, if Núñez had gone a little higher or lower, they would deserve the favorite label.
In the course of this draw, the best team won. PSG’s pinnacle in the first leg was stimulating, and in the final moments, it was Luis Enrique’s men who looked cooler and more likely to find the winner. Even so, the fact that some form of justice was done through penalties does not mean that Liverpool was more than unfortunate to have been attracted to one of the gold -plated display contenders of this competition.
You could say that Liverpool uploaded its luck in the first leg. You could also say that they have used the best goalkeeper in the world for almost seven years, precisely so that when Khvicha Kvarathskhelia rained in his target, Liverpool did not bend. Anyway, some of the fortunes that arrived in the Parc Des princesses were repaired in the first 90 minutes in Anfield. The expected objectives (XG) could paint an image of the Parisian domain, but when Ousmane Dembele takes advantage of an empty three -yard network, its XG will look a bit inflated.
Certainly, there were moments for visitors, but there was also a complete wave of them for Liverpool, starting with a slightly indifferent end of Mohamed Salah, blocked to a safe place by Nuno Mendes and ending with the Donnarumma Defiance, preparing the stage for his shooting heroic.
“After 90 minutes, it seemed clear to me that we deserved more than being 1-0 down,” said Arne Slot. “We play the perfect game and don’t write down.”
There will be time for the slot to choose the holes in the actions of its side on both legs. It will certainly need more than many could expect. The simple reality is that if Liverpool had fulfilled most of the field in the last 16 that they would have been crossing, even allowing their bamboleo at the beginning of the tie. Only the best could defeat this team. Maybe that’s what PSG are.
Even if they were never behind in the draw until the shooting, the slot has been forced to be the most reactive coach. For 45 minutes, his team cooked since the English league leaders are supposed to be at this stage of the competition, at least not when they have not had a case of Pep Guardiola Galaxy brains. In the Parc Des Princes, the head of Liverpool made the necessary adjustments that would quell the PSG incursions in the penalty area. Alisson could still have had to make some more outstanding salvations, the 17 with which this draw is over is more than David Raya has done throughout the 2024-25 Champions League, but they were out of impressive attacks from the scope.
TRUMEDIA
Liverpool would never have considered such caution against Kop. It was for the enormous credit of Slot that one of the first big evidence of its European credentials as manager of this club saw its part play in a way that seemed so reddish of its predecessor. In the first particular half, the hosts were more a team of Jurgen Klopp than they had often been on many occasions in recent years.
The aggression of his press without regrets meant that during the first 10 minutes, neither Debele nor Bradley Barcola had a great smell in possession. The red wall forced the most and deeper PSG, the high ball losses come with a remarkable frequency. Liverpool seemed bigger, stronger and more mobile.
Such ferocity meant taking risks, the guy with which Klopp would be more at ease that the slot has seemed to be so far in his mandate. A little caution left the Liverpool game when they went to look for possession and that meant abandoning the coverage of the central space against the four. Dembele just needed to detect it once, throwing himself into space as a true false nine, sliding to Barcola with a fine pass and sniffing the opportunity of a poacher when Ibrahima Konate had no choice but to dive in front of a cross.
Liverpool was not really taken from his passage through the tie of the tie. They were still prepared to bet in Barcola drilling their high line, since the game was speed, the intensity decreased but squeezed its grip. An out of the game by Diogo Jota just before Trent Alexander-Arnold forced a series of opportunities that resulted in Dominik Szoboszlai returning the ball, more excellent blocks from the obduro Pacho de Willian: any of these moments could have broken the path of the Reds.
After 120 minutes exhausting and fruitless, fear will be correctly that this defeat will bleed until Sunday. Of all the neutral fascinated by this, few could have been crying for a minute of detention time, some more strong penalties as those of a Newcastle persuasion. A lot will be needed for the slot to physically and emotionally raise your players for the EFL Cup final on Sunday. The state of Trent Alexander-Arnold must have serious doubts after it was forced to accelerate with what seemed like an ankle injury. The best case for Ibrahima Konate could be a cramp. He will not be the only one who will feel Tuesday’s efforts in the next few days.
If this becomes the week that an acute one becomes “only” a title, then it can lead to a curious story that is informed about the Liverpool season, a feeling of lost opportunity given the procession in which the Premier League has become. That would be really hard in the slot, which proved to be more than capable of adapting to the demands of a high -grade European link. On another occasion, it could have been balanced, just as the PSG could be in those first 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 just a pity that we cannot see these two again.
