How the national media reacted to Liverpool's 2-0 loss in their Champions League quarter-final first-leg tie at Paris Saint-Germain
Paris, France - April 8: head coach Arne Slot of Liverpool FC and Ibrahima Konate of Liverpool FC looks dejected during the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 Quarter-Final First Leg match between Paris Saint-Germain FC and Liverpool FC at Parc des Princes on April 8, 2026 in Paris, France. (Photo by Harry Langer/DeFodi Images/DeFodi via Getty Images)
Arne Slot and Ibrahima Konate look dejected after Liverpool's Champions League quarter-final first-leg defeat at Paris Saint-Germain (Image: Harry Langer/DeFodi Images/DeFodi via Getty Images)
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Liverpool’s hopes of reaching the semi-finals of the Champions League were dealt a huge blow as Paris Saint-Germain won the first leg 2-0 at Parc des Princes on Wednesday night.
Goals from Desire Doue and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia did the damage for Arne Slot’s side, who suffered their 16th defeat of the campaign.
The ECHO was in the French capital to run the rule over proceedings and you can read our match verdict, player ratings, post-game analysis and the reactions of Liverpool head coach Slot and his PSG counterpart Luis Enrique on our pages now.
Our colleagues from the national media were also on hand to give their own considered take - and here’s what they made of it as the Reds were beaten in Paris....
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In the Daily Mail, Oliver Holt writes: “Before the game, the home fans in the La Tribune Auteuil behind one of the goals unveiled a giant banner that depicted the Incredible Hulk dressed in the colours of PSG. Ferocious and grim, he was holding a Liverpool crest in his hands, tearing it asunder.
“It was a picture that spoke a thousand words because this is a Liverpool divided. This is a Liverpool weakened by internal strife and tortured by the growing antipathy of the fan-base towards manager Arne Slot and his beleaguered players.
“This is a club worried that a schism is growing between fans and players, that frets about Hugo Ekitike swapping shirts with Rayan Cherki during their dismantling by Manchester City at the weekend, fans and ex-players horrified by Virgil van Dijk’s suggestion that some of the players gave up during that game, angry that Dominik Szoboszlai should complain about the fans’ lack of support, and fans complaining that the players do not even want to live on Merseyside.
“The institution that is Liverpool is creaking and groaning and PSG are not the team to play when life is hard. In this Champions League quarter-final first leg, PSG grabbed at those fraying seams and ripped them apart.”
Over on The Independent, Richard Jolly writes: “The good news for Liverpool is that they do not require their greatest Anfield comeback in Europe. But if that tag will forever be reserved for Barcelona in 2019, it may need their second best to eliminate Paris Saint-Germain.
“A night when Arne Slot abandoned the basis of his system – and, some would say, his principles – in favour of pragmatism brought a damage-limitation exercise that might be bracketed as a qualified success. Because Liverpool, walloped 4-0 at Manchester City on Saturday, only lost 2-0 to the European champions. Liverpool looked outclassed. They are not quite out of this tie.
“It might have been worse, whether with a repeat of their failings at the Etihad Stadium, or without the excellence of Giorgi Mamardashvili. When Liverpool were a goal down after 11 minutes, with a different shape and precious little possession, it threatened to be another rout. Instead, there was an exercise in concentration and improvised organisation.”
On the Times’ pages, Paul Joyce pens: “For those Liverpool supporters always looking for a reason to believe, perhaps there was an omen in the sight of Ousmane Dembele aghast at spurning a glaring opportunity.
“The Frenchman curled up in a ball, burying his head in his hands, having cleared the crossbar with one attempt early in the second half on Wednesday evening.
“It had, of course, been a similar story seven years ago. Back then, a cut back from the left-hand side of the area was also played to Dembele’s left foot as he lurked by the penalty spot. He would succeed only in scuffing his kick and an effort rolled apologetically into the arms of the Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson.
“On that occasion, it was Lionel Messi who reacted by lying in an anguished heap on the turf, his intuition that Barcelona would rue not having plundered another goal proving to be correct the following week at a baying Anfield.
“But that was then, and this is now.”
Mike McGrath, of The Telegraph, writes: “There was no sign of the white flag being waved, yet Liverpool had no answer to the attacking football in front of them here in Paris, embodied by Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s wonder goal. He danced around opponents in the style of George Best before scoring and effectively sealing this tie.
“Liverpool have produced some of the greatest comebacks in Champions League history and it will take another to turn this around next week. They failed to lay a glove on the European champions, who could have added to the scoreline just like Manchester City at the weekend, when Virgil van Dijk admitted some players had given up.
“Arne Slot’s players could not be accused of that at Parc des Princes, but their body language raised the question: how can they score a goal against this PSG team? The reality is their season is now going to rest on whether they finish in the Premier League top five and be among Europe’s elite next season. This current team are playing like Thursday nights in the Europa League are on the horizon.”
And in the ECHO’s verdict: “Budapest has never felt so far away for Liverpool. And while Arne Slot and his players will attempt to say all the right things after this quarter-final defeat by Paris Saint-Germain, dreams of a seventh European Cup will surely be placed on hold at Anfield now.
“The real question is for how long? Attention quickly turns to the arduous slog that is their Premier League campaign, where they host Fulham on Saturday evening, and while they presently occupy the fifth and final qualification spot, they may yet stumble into the Promised Land simply by being slightly less ordinary than rivals Chelsea. It seems oddly fitting.
“A 2-0 defeat here may leave enough room for Slot and his squad to talk up their ability to force the type of European comeback for which Liverpool are famous for at home next week, but this is not a group of players who, deep down, will genuinely believe it can be achieved.
“Chins are on the floor, shoulders are hunched and confidence on the back of successive defeats to Manchester City and PSG - where six goals were shipped without reply - is now perhaps at an all-time low.”