So now we know that there is another side to the champions of Europe. PSG of France can defend, too.
Here at a rain-soaked but utterly engrossed Anfield, Luis Enrique’s side really had to as Liverpool finally turned up for their manager Arne Slot.
After what was pretty much a 2-0 hiding in Paris last week, Liverpool scared the life out of PSG here.
Energy, creativity, emotion. Liverpool brought it all, particularly during a second half period when they had their opponents pushed so far back they were almost making room for them on the front row of the Kop.
Sadly for Liverpool, though, there was no goal, only a queue of close calls and a penalty awarded when Alexis Mac Allister went down only to be overturned rather surprisingly on the advice of the VAR officials.
That was probably the big moment of the night and a call that will haunt Slot if this is to be his final season at the club. There were still 25 minutes to go and Liverpool were flying.
Ousmane Dembele celebrates scoring the first goal of the game for PSG against Liverpool
Arne Slot kicks out in frustration after watching his side go behind against the run of play
Dembele added his second through the legs of Giorgi Mamardashvili late on
But the truth is that PSG were magnificent in their own half here. Just as they took Liverpool apart with the speed and brilliance of their attacking football last week, here they defended like a pack of dogs. Lesser teams would have buckled. Many have before. Barcelona in 2019 for one.
But PSG’s cussedness was was just about enough to see them hang on when they had to and when they finally broke out with 18 minutes left Ousmane Dembele curled in a superb shot to send his team in to a semi-final that looked likely to be their destiny since the whistle blew on game one last week.
In added time, Dembele scored another and that was cruel. Liverpool didn’t deserve to prevail in this tie – they had been far too meek in game one – but nor did they deserve to lose this game.
Crucial for PSG throughout was that they matched Liverpool’s intensity. When Barcelona lost 4-0 in that stunning semi-final second leg seven years ago they were overwhelmed by the ferocity of their opponents’ play. It was as though it came as a shock to them.
Here there was none of that from PSG. They knew what they were here for in for, Instead this was a game that Liverpool had go grow into and it was to their credit that they did that and then dominated huge parts of it.
Slot had rolled the dice with his selection. Mo Salah began on the bench again as Hugo Ekitike, Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak started together for the very first time. Salah, unfortunately for Ekitike, was to enter the game after half an hour after the Frenchman went down injured with no PSG player near him. Salah went on to have a good game.
PSG – doubtless rested after the French league agreed to their request of a weekend off – were clearly here to impose themselves and they did that immediately. The French champions mustered three shots in as many opening minutes and the third of them – from the wonderful Khvicha Kvaratskhelia – was saved at the second attempt by Liverpool goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili.
The players surround referee Maurizio Mariani after a penalty was awarded then overturned
William Pacho felled Alexis Mac Allister and a spot kick was given on-field
Liverpool were not short of backing. The Kop were doing their bit. They needed to find some forward momentum, though, and soon enough it came. Wirtz and Jeremie Frimpong combined well to win a corner and when it arrived Isak headed it into goalkeeper’s arms.
The game was open from the start. At times, it felt like a final twenty minutes rather than an opening one. A break from PSG saw Mamardashvili rush out to clear and then dash back to punch away the follow up from 35 yards by Dembele.
PSG had more of the ball and slightly more of the control. Not that there was much in it and it was soon to change anyway. A Dembele cross from the right seemed perfect for Desire Doue but for some reason the young forward tried to control the ball six yards out instead of trying his luck first time.
At the other end, meanwhile, Isak ran intelligently on to a Ryan Gravenberch pass but was offside as goalkeeper Matvei Safonov came out to block.
The Ekitike injury around this point was devastating for the forward. It seemed to be a problem with his lower right leg and as he was taken off on a stretcher it was hard not to worry for his World Cup hopes. It looked serious.
Salah was busy from the moment he arrived. If he felt he had a point to prove, it was maybe to his team’s benefit. In the 32nd minute the 33-year-old’s cross from the right missed everyone at the near post and that allowed Milos Kerkez to meet it at the far.
The left-back’s shot was saved brilliantly by Safonov and then the defender Marquinhos was just as sharp in blocking the follow up from Virgil van Dijk. It felt like a huge moment in the tie and it served to deliver the home team some belief as they twice went close at the start of the second half through Cody Gakpo – on for Isak – and Joe Gomez, on for Frimpong.
This felt like Liverpool’s time to strike as for the first time in the whole tie PSG looked really unsettled. Indeed a period of sustained and at times brutal pressure arrived.
Gravenberch was high with his thumping drive in the 55th minute and then Salah – whose influence was growing – crossed beautifully for Kerkez to side-foot back across goal and wide.
Hugo Ekitike went off on a stretcher after suffering a serious looking injury in the first half
The longer a gripping second half went on the more it felt as though one Liverpool goal would bring another. PSG were reduced to scrapping, chasing and blocking but their appetite was never in doubt.
The penalty incident was a strange one. It looked more like one on TV that it did in real time. Yet it was after a look at the VAR screen that referee Maurizio Mariani decided Willian Pacho’s nudge on the back of Mac Allister’s calf was not illegal. What was beyond doubt was the contact.
An injury to Gomez soon gave young Rio Ngumoah another chance and, after his weekend goal against Fulham, he almost took it. Safonov’s save in the 71st minute was a good one and had to be.
And then the first PSG goal, the killer blow. A break away was always the danger to Liverpool and the trump card left in PSG’s deck. So down the left they went and a square pass to Dembele led to a perfect 18-yard finish after a turn inside MacAllister on to his left foot.
Liverpool needed three to force extra-time and it was never going to happen. The air was out of the balloon. Dembele scored again with the Liverpool defence absent in the 93rd minute and Salah was left to say farewell to Champions League football with Liverpool.
As for Slot, we wait. He takes his team to Everton on Sunday. It doesn’t get easier for the Liverpool manager.
