There is no disgrace in losing to Paris Saint-Germain, the champions of Europe who wowed the continent this time last year with a brand of passing football associated with the great Barcelona of Pep Guardiola.
The team from the French capital entered this tie as favourites and the first leg went exactly how the bookmakers predicted it. Again, not a disgrace.
But why should we all just accept the gulf between these two teams? Are we all to just be fine with the fact that Liverpool, a team Jurgen Klopp turned from ‘doubters to believers’, are just doubters again now?
Just over a year ago, these sides met in the last 16. It was a titanic tussle. The tie of the season. Two heavyweights landing punch after punch, barely anything to split them in a pair of games that would have been worthy of the Champions League final in any season.
When PSG were victorious at Anfield, thanks largely to goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma and a dose of luck to win a penalty shoot-out, one left the stadium thinking they would go on to win the competition.
It would have been the same had Liverpool won – those two games were a battle between the cream of the crop of Europe.
There was nothing from Liverpool’s defeat by PSG to suggest that they can turn the tie around
The blame falls at the door of Arne Slot and the Reds hierarchy that tore up their squad
A year on, the chasm is gigantic. In the intervening period, one team has spent £450million, the other just over £100m. But only one of those has gone massively backwards and that is the big-spending English champions.
The blame for that has to fall at the door of Arne Slot and the hierarchy who ripped up the squad, with only five of the XI who lost at the Parc des Princes last March starting again here 13 months on.
Liverpool are down but not out in Paris and the main reason for that is down to woeful finishing from the home team, a solid goalkeeping display from Giorgi Mamardashvili and maybe a bit of luck that Ibrahima Konate was not penalised for a push in the penalty area late on.
Slot is under a mountain of pressure and a trip to PSG would have been bottom of his list of places to go right now, especially noting how they haunted him last year – a tie that he talks about seemingly every week.
But the statistics did nothing to help his cause. An expected goals tally of 0.18, 26 per cent possession, three shots. A big, fat zero shots on target or big chances. Just one corner. Just 253 passes attempted compared to PSG’s 744.
Florian Wirtz, at £100million, was ineffective (though by far not the biggest of their problems), Hugo Ekitike failed to impact the game, the midfield was nowhere to be seen as was the case on Saturday and the substitutions did little.
Individual errors were too common and the defence was split open with ease.
In fact, Liverpool’s best weapon seemed to be a Joe Gomez long throw. Again, it is not a disgrace to lose at PSG – but for a head coach who prides himself on attacking football and a team that has spent so much money, it is hard to find sympathy for Slot.
There is no disgrace in losing to PSG – but they are still elite whilst Liverpool have gone backwards in the last year
Mohamed Salah stayed on the bench all game in what is becoming a sorry end to his career at Liverpool
Mohamed Salah, who was brilliant in the last round of this competition against Galatasaray, sat on the bench for the whole night. Yes, he has been sub-par this season but surely the Egyptian was worth throwing on towards the end at the very least?
What a sorry end to his glorious Liverpool career.
Slot said Liverpool were lucky to still be in the tie and he is right. They are indeed still in the tie but nothing from this night in Paris gave anyone confidence or belief that they can indeed overturn it next week.
If any club is famous for overcoming the odds in this competition, it is Liverpool. Playing like this, though, it is hard to foresee anything other than another night of PSG strangling their opposition into submission.
