Arne Slot won’t win the Premier League and the Champions League in his first season at Anfield. However, he can claim his first trophy this weekend – and it won’t be long before the main title the red half of Merseyside wants is secured.
In Europe, though, Slot’s journey — for this season — is over. Liverpool is out and it can’t really have any arguments after PSG generated 4.34 expected goals across the 210 minutes, somehow scoring just once.
Alisson Becker was the only reason there was still an active tie at the end of the first leg. Then, in the rematch, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia could’ve scored a couple, and Ousmane Dembele and Bradley Barcola, too.
Liverpool simply couldn’t argue with going out. Penalties are a lottery, but the luck fell the way of the deserved.
Slot said that Liverpool didn’t play badly in the first leg but was simply outplayed by an exceptional side. That might have been a stretch, but it wasn’t here. The Reds played well, but PSG was still able to edge it.
When the dust settles, it sets Liverpool up for a big summer. While Slot’s impact so far has been sensational, his roster needs a little more stardust to get the other big prize.
It was a tie of fine margins but PSG was the deserved victor. It was without a star name like Kylian Mbappe too. Liverpool threw on Darwin Nunez, and he was poor. Federico Chiesa, once again, was left watching from the side. It was the visitor with the capacity to bring players on who made its team stronger.
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For all its arrogance heading into the second leg, PSG got through. It proved, on the biggest stage, that it could cope, and the reality is that it was right, in the end, to be confident. It played very well and stamped its mark — perhaps for the first time ever — on a truly big encounter.
That is what Liverpool needs next season: to remain an elite team that works together and runs hard, but to add even more star quality. Kvaratskhelia, signed by the Ligue 1 leader in January, is an excellent example. Liverpool has to be ruthless.
While it would be easy to look at the Premier League table and think that Liverpool was nearly ready to challenge again next season, some refreshing will come. That was going to be the case no matter what happened here, but the result underlined why.
“We have to accept it and we will come back stronger next season,” Slot promised during his post-match press conference.
When the season ends, Liverpool can upgrade on Andy Robertson, Nunez, and others. Starting from a high base, it doesn’t need much — but this is the level.
Liverpool lost to the best team in Europe that only Real Madrid — possibly — will be able to stop. Next time, it needs a way of tipping the balance slightly more in its favor.
