There were no boos or whistles at full-time. No kicking of chairs, no sacre bleus.
Instead the Paris night was filled with slack-jawed, stunned silence. As one the players shuffled together towards the Paris Saint-Germain ultras. They both mutedly clapped each other. The end.
The pre-match banner the ultras had earlier unfurled said it all. ‘Victoire!!!’ they emplored, with three exclamation marks. They didn’t want to win plaudits, or admirers, or the xG battle. Just a football match.
Instead they somehow conjured up a contender for the most one-sided defeat in Champions League history. Oh, PSG.
The Briefing – PSG 0 Liverpool 1: Alisson’s heroics, Elliott’s sucker punch
Like his Paris public, Luis Enrique was lost for words too at first, but he only really needed to say four in an interview with Canal+ to accurately sum up the evening’s proceedings: “It’s a bit weird.”
Yep, it wasn’t supposed to be this way.
PSG’s pre-match promise was of goals. Since they put four past Manchester City in an epic come-from-behind victory in late January, they had played 12 matches and scored 45 goals, at a rate of 3.75 per match.
No team in the Champions League’s last 16 were scoring at that rate (by comparison, Real Madrid scored 27 in their previous 12 games) and PSG weren’t beating cannon fodder; they scored four against Stuttgart, Lille and Monaco, three at Lyon and 15 in three matches against Brest.
They had won 10 in a row in all competitions (their best run for a decade), were unbeaten in 22 and Ousmane Dembele had scored 20 goals in 14 appearances. Sure, drawing Liverpool was pretty annoying, but Europe’s most in-form attack could still take them.
And then the weirdness happened.
So how do you judge the fact PSG had 27 attempts to Liverpool’s two and still managed to lose 1-0? Did they choke? Were they all style and no substance? Do you simply point to man of the match Alisson producing what must be his best performance of the season, with eight saves? Do you praise Liverpool’s defensive unit, which resembled a horizontal red postbox wedged in front of Alisson’s goal?
The sight of Virgil van Dijk hoofing long goal kicks (and taking his time doing so in the second half, earning a booking for time wasting) was the ultimate sign of respect. Liverpool dared not even attempt to play through the PSG press.
It was a wise decision, because in their pressing and counter-pressing, like in so many facets of their game, PSG were supreme.
The tone was set (after a cat-and-mouse opening) in the 16th minute when Dembele drifted to the right flank and surged past Andy Robertson and Alexis Mac Allister like when a high speed train careers past the platform you’re standing on at 125mph.
Sadly for PSG, the tone was also set with Joao Neves’ resulting scuffed shot, into the ground and over the bar.
Still, to watch them in full flow was quite something. Dembele scythed through at will, toying with Robertson like a bigger boy who’d infiltrated a kids’ playground kickabout, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia jinked and teased and drew the best from Alisson, Bradley Barcola evaded capture whenever he pleased but also spurned a golden opportunity with Alisson grounded.
The front three took it turns to entertain, like the Bee Gees passing the mic on karaoke night. Their fluidity was made to appear effortless. Every time you looked away and back at the pitch again, a PSG player had taken up a different position and a team mate had seamlessly replaced him.
Their counter-press was incredibly efficient, while their commitment to harass and harry and win the ball was, well, un-PSG-like, rendering Liverpool’s midfield non-existent for long spells. Oh and when Liverpool did venture forward the commanding Marquinhos was imperious at the back.
What with full-backs Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes joining the party and busy No 8s Joao Neves and Fabian Ruiz popping up in the box uninvited, all-encompassing and relentless PSG incessantly asked questions of the Liverpool defence like they were being quizzed on Mastermind. The only problem was their specialist subject was smash-and-grab away victories.
So what was missing for PSG? Well, with the amount of cut-backs they forged, a predator in the box would have been handy. Said predator was finally sent on after 78 minutes, but Goncalo Ramos was a disappointment, failing to latch onto a Hakimi cross and lacking the presence of mind to snaffle home a rebound or two. Oh and obviously, with the form Alisson was in, he would have saved Harvey Elliott’s winning shot. Gianluigi Donnarumma didn’t.
It meant they lost for the fourth time in all competitions this season. The other three were also against top-level opponents in the Champions League (0-2 at Arsenal, 1-2 at home to Atletico Madrid and 0-1 at Bayern Munich).
And yet, this felt different to those defeats. PSG had not been outclassed or outfought in any way whatsoever. Quite the opposite.
“It’s difficult to think about the match in a postitive way,” Luis Enrique said.
“We deserved to win, clearly, we created a lot of chances, it’s one of the best matches in the Champions League we did this season and last year.
“When you think the best Liverpool player was their goalkeeper Alisson… OK, football is many times unfair and we have to accept that. But we are ready (to go) to Liverpool.
“We don’t have anything to lose. Liverpool is the best team in Europe this year and created one or two chances, maximum. I feel proud of my players, the team, the supporters. That’s the key to follow on, to continue.
“We have our last chance (at Anfield) and we’re going to think about that in a positive way. We’re going to do it.”
PSG came into the tie in the midst of a feelgood factor the club has not experienced for some time.
The post-Kylian Mbappe/Lionel Messi/Neymar flowerbed has taken its time to bloom, with a new focus on a full buy-in from a young, fiercely committed team.
In that respect, PSG did themselves justice. People saw it, Liverpool felt it. They showed Europe what they are about and what they have become.
A smash-and-grab defeat does not change the trajectory PSG are on, albeit the scoreline detracts from what felt like a next generation performance but didn’t deliver the stand-up-and-take-notice result.
Does that come next week? Will it be victoire (!!!) at Anfield, what with more space for Dembele, Barcola and Kvaratskhelia to exploit?
Don’t put it past them.
(Top photo: Xavier Laine/Getty Images)
