Prior to Tuesday night at Anfield, Liverpool had won all 37 of the UEFA competition ties in which they had won the first leg away. To end that proud record would take something special. Paris Saint-Germain delivered it in an enthralling UEFA Champions League round of 16 second leg that Reds coach Arne Slot described as "the best game of football I was ever involved in".
Just how they did it is the subject of the following analysis, brought to you by FedEx, which highlights the movement that brought the only goal of the second leg, from Ousmane Dembélé, and reflects on an exceptional display by the visitors' penalty shoot-out hero, Gianluigi Donnarumma.
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In the Zone: Paris' attacking fluidity
Fluid Paris's clever movement
The focus of the first video is Dembélé's early goal which levelled the aggregate score at 1-1 and followed an excellent move characteristic of Paris's fluid midfield play.
The video shows how Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Vitinha interchange positions on the left and with this rotation, Vitinha manages to draw Dominik Szoboszlai across to him, so opening up space centrally. Dembélé duly profits as he drops back in to collect the ball before driving forward, feeding Bradley Barcola and then getting into the box where he plunders his goal.
Elaborating on the example, UEFA Technical Observer Gareth Southgate was full of praise for the Paris midfielders, not just for their comfort when receiving the ball under pressure but for their movement too. He said: "They were fluid in dropping deep and there was always a midfield player available to connect the game and release pressure on their defenders.
"They also took up intelligent high positions which caused Liverpool’s defenders a problem, in particular with Dembélé dropping deep to receive. He often created the extra man to create the overload in midfield."
This is not the first time this season that Paris have impressed UEFA's Technical Observer Group with their capacity to create a numerical superiority in the middle, as previously seen in this analysis of their victory over Manchester City in January.
As it happened: Liverpool 0-1 Paris (agg 1-1, Paris win 4-1 on pens)
In the Zone: Donnarumma big game saves
Donnarumma rises to the occasion
Over the two legs of this contest, Liverpool's Alisson Becker made 16 saves yet it was the goalkeeper at the other end, Donnarumma, who emerged as the hero ultimately, thanks to his stops from Darwin Núñez and Curtis Jones in the shoot-out.
The Italian's penalty saves feature in the second video above, though it begins with an example of his excellence in normal time with a save from Luis Díaz's header following one of several threatening set plays by the home side.
Donnarumma was not alone in standing tall in a fantastic collective effort by Luis Enrique's team. Southgate also applauded the contributions of centre-back Pacho and Nuno Mendes, for example, but it was Donnarumma who earned the Player of the Match award. "Donnarumma possibly punched more balls than any keeper I've ever seen tonight!" said Southgate.
"Liverpool were committing seven men in the box for corners and had a height advantage in some marking situations and so Donnarumma had clearly decided or was told to be aggressive, and although he didn't always connect cleanly, he took pressure off his defenders with his punches.
"He made an outstanding save from a header in the second half and then has a huge presence in penalty shoot-outs.”
Southgate was the England manager when Donnarumma saved two penalties in Italy's triumph in the final of UEFA EURO 2020 at Wembley. As the video shows, he excelled again in another shoot-out on English soil, first diving to his left to foil Núñez and then getting down low to his right to stop Jones's kick.
Summing up his goalkeeper’s display, Paris coach Luis Enrique referred, like Southgate, to both his spot-kick saves and his penalty-box presence. "I think the first game was Alisson's, this one belonged to Gigi and so we drew 1-1," he said. "The penalties reflected what type of team we are. Gigi was magnificent the whole game. Liverpool are a very powerful team in the air, one of the best in Europe, and Gigi gave us something extra – in those situations, he helped the team a lot. He was magnificent."
Donnarumma's winning contribution:
• Presence
• Aggression
• Big saves