Liverpool have seen their Champions League dreams come to an end following a penalty shootout defeat against Paris Saint-Germain at Anfield on Tuesday.
Courtesy of Harvey Elliott’s late winner at Parc des Princes last week, Arne Slot’s men held a narrow first-leg advantage over their French counterparts and would have fancied their chances of getting the job done in front of their fans.
The game’s first major opportunity fell to the man Liverpool fans would have wanted the most, but Mohammed Salah saw his goal-bound strike deflected over by Nuno Mendes.
Salah was in on the act once again moments later when he jinked past a couple of challenges before curling an effort past Gianluigi Donnarumma’s left-hand post.
Against the run of play, Paris Saint-Germain took the lead as a defensive mix-up involving Ibrahima Konate presented Ousmane Dembele with the simple task of tapping the ball home from close range.
Seeking to make an immediate atonement for his error, Konate called Donnarumma into action shortly afterwards with a fierce low drive from long range.
With Liverpool still firmly in the ascendancy, PSG nearly caught their hosts out for the second time on the break, although Alisson was able to deny Bradley Barcola after the Frenchman had been played in on goal.
Given the nod to feature at centre-forward over Darwin Nunez, Diogo was keen to end an eight-game goal drought since mid-January but could not keep his header from Alexis Mac Allister’s corner down.
PSG continued to trouble their hosts on the counter and threatened Alisson’s goal twice in the space of four minutes through Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.
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In keeping with their first-half display, Liverpool flew out of the blocks in the second period and had the ball in the back of the net in the 53rd minute only for Dominik Szoboszlai to see his goal chalked off for offside.
Liverpool had threatened from set-piece situations on a number of occasions and nearly drew level through Diaz, who saw his header acrobatically clawed away by Donnarumma.
Mo Salah had an attempt cleared off the line just past the hour mark as the equaliser continued to draw increasingly closer to arriving.
After an enthralling three quarters of the game, the contest settled into a more pedestrian affair before picking up again in the final 10 minutes, albeit all to no avail as the tie remained level at the end of regulation time.
Having been under the cosh for large spells of the second half, PSG began extra time on top and had Alisson worried twice inside the opening five minutes through substitutes Lucas Beraldo and Desire Doue.
Alisson needed to be at his razor-sharp best to deny Dembele a double barely two minutes into the second period of extra time as PSG continued to pose more of the attacking threat.
Kang-in Lee was the next PSG player to be denied by Allison, and comfortably too, in what proved to be the final attacking moment of note, after which the tie went to penalties.
Vitinha got his side off to a perfect start from 12 yards, after which Salah reciprocated to leave the sides level after the first set of spot-kicks.
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Brought on as a substitute to participate in the shootout, Goncalo Ramos made no mistake with PSG’s subsequent kick, but Darwin Nunez was unable to restore parity having been denied by Donnarumma.
Dembele kept his cool to put the away side 3-1 up, and probably due to the added pressure of being behind, Curtis Jones was foiled by Donnarumma.
Doue was handed the responsibility of taking the potentially defining penalty, which the Frenchman made no mistake converting to send Les Parisiens into the last eight.
Awaiting the Ligue 1 leaders is either Aston Villa or Club Brugge, with the sides scheduled to conclude their last-16 clash tomorrow.
Liverpool, meanwhile, will seek to put their European disappointment behind them in Sunday’s EFL Cup final against Newcastle United.