Liverpool head coach Arne Slot described the second leg of his team’s Champions League tie with Paris Saint-Germain as the “best game of football” he has been involved in, despite crashing out of the competition on penalties.
Liverpool won the first leg of the tie 1-0 thanks to a late goal from Harvey Elliott in Paris but lost at Anfield after Ousmane Dembélé found the back of the net to draw PSG level on aggregate.
The French champions then triumphed in the shootout, with Gianluigi Donnarumma saving from both Darwin Núñez and Curtis Jones before Désiré Doué hammered home the winning penalty.
“It was the best game of football I was ever involved in,” Slot told reporters after the match (via espn.co.uk) “I don’t have the history that Liverpool has as a manager but it was two teams at an incredible level. It was an incredible intensity in the first 25 minutes.
“I also remember the first 25 against Manchester City at home and the first 25 against Real Madrid but this was unbelievable, what we showed in the first 25. But I looked at the scoreboard and we were 1-0 down.
“Over 90 minutes, I don’t think we deserved to lose this game of football. Over 180 minutes, maybe it was deserved that we went to extra time. In extra time, I thought maybe PSG were a bit better than us, and then it comes down to penalties and we lost.”
Liverpool finished top of the Champions League league phase, winning seven of eight games, and have also lost just once in the Premier League this season to surge 15 points clear at the top of the table.