LIVERPOOL, England — Liverpool head coach Arne Slot described the second leg of his team’s Champions League tie with Paris Saint-Germain as the “best game of football” he has been involved in, despite crashing out of the competition on penalties.
Liverpool won the first leg of the tie 1-0 thanks to a late goal from Harvey Elliott in Paris but lost at Anfield after Ousmane Dembélé found the back of the net to draw PSG level on aggregate.
The French champions then triumphed in the shootout, with Gianluigi Donnarumma saving from both Darwin Núñez and Curtis Jones before Désiré Doué hammered home the winning penalty.
“It was the best game of football I was ever involved in,” Slot told reporters after the match. “I don’t have the history that Liverpool has as a manager but it was two teams at an incredible level. It was an incredible intensity in the first 25 minutes.
“I also remember the first 25 against Manchester City at home and the first 25 against Real Madrid but this was unbelievable, what we showed in the first 25. But I looked at the scoreboard and we were 1-0 down.
“Over 90 minutes, I don’t think we deserved to lose this game of football. Over 180 minutes, maybe it was deserved that we went to extra time. In extra time, I thought maybe PSG were a bit better than us, and then it comes down to penalties and we lost.”
Liverpool finished top of the Champions League league phase, winning seven of eight games, and have also lost just once in the Premier League this season to surge 15 points clear at the top of the table.
And Slot, in his first season at Anfield, tried to remain positive.
“Of course it’s a shock and it’s maybe not the moment to tell [the players] now but last season we weren’t involved in the Champions League, the season before we went out losing 5-2 to Real Madrid at home. So if you have to go out, then go out in a way that we did against one of the best teams in Europe, making such a fight out of it.
“For us, it’s so unlucky that if you are No.1 in the [league phase] table that you then face PSG who are one of the best teams in Europe, but that’s the format we are in. We have to accept it and we will come back stronger next season.”
Liverpool must now regroup ahead of this weekend’s Carabao Cup final against Newcastle United. However, Slot could be without several key players for the trip to Wembley, with both Trent Alexander-Arnold and Ibrahima Konaté having been forced off on Tuesday night.
“I have to ask but Ibou was more that he was tired than it was an injury,” Slot said. “With Trent, he had to come off. That’s never a good sign and from what I heard from people that saw the images, that didn’t look very good so I will be surprised if he’s available for Sunday.
“The good thing is that we play a final on Sunday so mentally that’s the best you can ask for, because that’s what you play football for to play in finals.”
