Liverpool produced a smash-and-grab victory for the ages, beating PSG 1-0 in the first leg of their Round of 16 Champions League clash.
Arne Slot’s Reds now take a commanding one-goal lead back to Anfield for the second leg, but to say they rode their luck at times would be the understatement of the century.
PSG dominated the entire match. Alisson was undoubtedly Liverpool’s man of the match at the Parc des Princes, having been forced into a number of world-class saves by the hosts.
But it was Liverpool who got their reward for digging deep as substitutes Darwin Nunez and Harvey Elliott combined for what proved to be the late match-winner.
“I don’t think it’s too difficult to analyse tonight’s game. We were far superior to Liverpool,” PSG manager Luis Enrique told reporters in his post-match press conference.
“We created more chances and produced a complete performance against one of Europe’s top sides. Football can be unfair at times.
“Without a doubt [they can go through]. We’ve only played the first leg. We’re a side with nothing to lose. If we can replicate tonight’s performance, we can qualify.”
“We deserved more. Their best player was their goalkeeper – he was magnificent today. Today wasn’t a game based on the stats or the details.
“We were far superior. We didn’t allow Liverpool to play. They were better than us for the first five minutes but, apart from that, it was us on top.”
Liverpool manager Arne Slot was magnanimous in victory and his assessment of the game didn’t differ a great deal from his opposite number:
“Had we got a draw, we would still have been the lucky ones. They were much the better team today,” Slot responded.
“It’s a good result for us, but we felt the quality of Paris.
“Every underlying stat shows you they were the best side in the Champions League. I wasn’t surprised at how good they were.
“We were not under-par, it was just down to the quality of the opposition. They showed it today. Luis Enrique has created an incredible team here.”
Here are 12 unbelievable stats that illustrate what a crazy win it was for Liverpool:
— PSG registered 1.82xG, 27 shots and 10 on target to Liverpool’s 0.27xG, two shots and one on target.
— Alisson made nine saves on the night, while Gianluigi Donnarumma didn’t make any.
— Liverpool now hold a joint record (with PSG, against Bayern Munich in April 2021) for winning a Champions League knockout match with the negative difference in shots. As above, Liverpool notched 25 fewer efforts than the hosts on the night. Credit to @OptaJoe
— 29.5% is the lowest share of possession that Liverpool have ever registered on record. The previous record was their 3-3 draw away to Sevilla (29.7%) in the 2017-18 Champions League group stage.
— Until the late winner, Liverpool had created barely anything. Literally nothing from open play. Luis Diaz’s header on the stroke of half-time (0.13xG) had been their only attempt until the 86th minute.
— Going into this match, PSG had been unbeaten in their last 22 matches in all competitions (19 wins, three draws). They’re the only side unbeaten in Europe’s top five leagues, while they came into this off the back of a ten-game winning streak (aggregate score: 41-7).
— Mohamed Salah is the Ballon d’Or frontrunner, having scored or assisted against every Premier League side barring Nottingham Forest this season. But this was by some distance his quietest performance of the season; he registered zero dribbles, zero attempts and zero chances created.
— That was the sixth occasion in which Arne Slot has fielded that exact starting XI. Remarkably, in Jurgen Klopp’s 491 matches in charge of the Reds he never fielded the same XI on more than five occasions – via Michael Reid.
— Elliott’s goal was his very first touch, just 47 seconds after being introduced for Salah. It was Liverpool’s latest winning goal in a Champions League knockout game.
— Liverpool have beaten the reigning champions of England (x2), Germany, Spain and now France this season without conceding a single goal.
— Elliott is yet to start a league game this season and has notched fewer Premier League minutes (76) than Billy Gilmour (98) who left Brighton for Napoli in August. But he’s making the most of his limited opportunities, and his late winner against PSG was his third goal in as many games in the Champions League.
— Following the result, OPTA‘s Supercomputer projections now give Liverpool an 84.6% of progressing to the quarter-finals. They’re also the favourite to win the tournament according to the data firm, giving them a 26% chance of lifting the trophy in Munich. For context, Real Madrid are given a 9.2% chance and PSG have a 3.1% chance of going all the way after their first-leg defeat.
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