When the penalty shootout pain has subsided and the players come down after a phenomenal Champions League defeat to Paris Saint-Germain, Liverpool will realise that game was the last thing they possibly needed before the Carabao Cup final on Sunday.
A European tie fit for a final, played like a final, is precisely not what you want five days before an actual final.
Arne Slot described it as the best game of football he had ever been involved in: “It had everything you’d like to see from a football game.
“I’ve never seen them so aggressive and so intense as the first 25 minutes.”
Slot had looked at the score and been stunned to find his players 1-0 down. And from there it was a chaotic, frenetic, topsy turvy game that went end to end to end to end, endlessly.
Of course, they had to go for it. But did they have to go for it quite so hard? They carried that one-goal lead from the first leg to Anfield. Had the accusations of a lucky smash-and-grab overly influenced that incredible intensity they played with in the first 25 minutes and large swathes of the second half and extra time? Was the ferocious crowd impossible to ignore?
The statistics told the story of a brutal defeat: 19 shots at PSG’s goal, 20 tackles, 14 fouls; 53 duels won, 73 lost; 539 passes between them, 677 chased; 35 crosses made, 10 crosses faced.
It was one of the great Champions League knockout ties, a brilliant second leg. One of “the nights you live for as a football player”, former Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge said in his post-match analysis. But it was the least ideal timing before a visit to Wembley.
And not only for the effort expended, the stamina depleted, the muscles and joints pushed to limits: could it be a destabilising defeat?
“Liverpool have to be careful not to let this result bring them down,” cautioned Wayne Rooney, pitch-side for Amazon Prime and a veteran of finals and bruising defeats.
It was Liverpool first defeat in eight games, their first in 11 of putting out a first team (their last defeat was a second string against Plymouth in the FA Cup).
Slot was asked if it could be a setback: “It’s clear what we have to do. One League Cup final and nine Premier League games.” His response was defiant.
But there is no question injuries to Trent Alexander-Arnold and Ibrahima Konate would be a significant setback after the pair were forced off on Tuesday.
“I have to ask but for me Ibou [Konate] 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 or how he got injured, that didn’t look very good. So I would be surprised if he is available for Sunday.”
With alternative right-back options Conor Bradley and Joe Gomez both unavailable, Alexander-Arnold’s absence could be catastrophic, leaving centre-back Jarell Quansah as his most likely replacement on Sunday. The 22-year-old has started just three Premier League matches this season and did not look wholly comfortable on the right when brought on.
Yet captain Virgil van Dijk insisted his side will be ready for Newcastle on Sunday.
“We will play with the same intensity and quality as we did in normal time,” Van Dijk said. “It will be a beautiful game. We’re really looking forward to it.
“I said to the guys, obviously, you can be disappointed because we’re out of the competition, but chin up and get ready for the next challenge.”
It was echoed by team-mate Andy Robertson: “We always bounce back.”
There will have to be much rest and recovery in the days ahead, while Slot sifts through the rubble of defeat to discover what state his players are in as he prepares for first shot at a trophy at Liverpool.