It was a match that had the smell of revenge. This Wednesday evening, PSG found Liverpool in the Champions League. Unlike last season where the match between the two teams took place in the round of 16, this time Arne Slot and Luis Enrique faced each other in the quarter-finals of the competition. And like last season, if on paper the meeting seemed balanced, Liverpool’s form could be worrying after their heavy defeat against Manchester City (4-0) in the FA Cup this weekend. We therefore expected a meeting dominated by PSG this evening, but not to this extent. Because Arne Slot, undoubtedly fearful of the Parisian level, decided to field an unambitious team on the field with a 3-man defense and the only Hugo Ekitike on the attacking front. The French international, back at the Parc des Princes, was only supported by Florian Wirtz and therefore did not exist at all while Mohamed Salah started the match on the bench. This is not the only one since the Reds were completely transparent in this match and at a very disappointing level, not to say shameful at times.
The English team’s first shot did not arrive until the 49th minute and technically, the level displayed by Dominik Szoboszlai’s teammates was distressing. This is demonstrated in particular by the 30% possession in this match. And despite the overwhelming Parisian domination, Arne Slot remained static on his bench, helpless with no desire to make things happen either at half-time or after the second Parisian goal arrived in the 65th minute. However, along the pitch, Isak, Gakpo, Salah and Jones had been warming up for a good half hour without ever entering. The Dutch technician was perhaps waiting to be led by 3 goals to tell himself that his team could not do it.
Liverpool unrecognizable
We had to wait for the penalty whistled for Paris and then canceled by the VAR to see the former Feyenoord coach try to change things in this match with in particular the entries of Isak, Gakpo and Robertson but not Salah who spent the entire match on the bench. But the match was already over and Liverpool were already very ill. The changes had no impact on the dynamics or the style of play displayed by Liverpool who continued to be quietly taken by a serious and diligent PSG. For his part, Arne Slot continued to pass his head with his hand in his pocket looking at his bench without any reaction to each Parisian action. As if he had decided to give up very early in the meeting. And if the score could have been much worse, almost condemning Liverpool’s chances in these quarter-finals, the performance of the Reds is seriously worrying as KonatĂ©’s teammates were so transparent. At the microphone of Canal+Arne Slot gave a speech that was surprising to say the least, believing that his team had held on.
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“We would have liked to create more, but there was no space. They had the ball a lot. They had incredible pace all over the field. I think you saw that we tried a lot of times to press them high. Sometimes it worked, but a lot of times they were able to get past us. They were playing behind our backs. I studied the game last season when we won 1-0. The game was exactly the same and the game at Anfield was different so we’re happy to be alive.” he said. For their part, the Parisians were keen to praise their performance rather than believing that Liverpool had been bad.“You know, I think it’s quite hard to come to the Park and play with our pressing. At Anfield, it will be different, they will be with their supporter and confidence. We will try to play our best game, reproduce the same thing”analyzed Warren Zaire-Emery. An analysis shared by Matvey Safonov who praised the level of his team. “We were ready to counter Liverpool’s attack. The defenders and the team did a difficult job. It worked and I’m very happy that we didn’t give Liverpool a chance to score. It wasn’t them who didn’t succeed, it was us who didn’t give us the chance to score. It’s more important.”
