Luis Enrique's men sent a message to the rest of Europe with devastating defeat of team that topped the league-phase table
Arne Slot said that his high-flying Liverpool side would need to produce their best performance of the season so far to knock Paris Saint-Germain out of the Champions League on Tuesday. They didn't, though.
The Reds certainly played a lot better than they did at Parc des Princes last week, when they nicked a 1-0 win thanks to Alisson Becker's heroics in goal and Harvey Elliott's late winner, but the runaway Premier League leaders still weren't good enough to see off PSG, who proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are capable of finally going all the way this season.
The goal that forced extra-time, and eventually penalties, may have been a gift, with Ibrahima Konate leaving Ousmane Dembele with the simplest of finishes. However, PSG produced a complete performance: they withstood a couple of periods of sustained pressure but also repeatedly came storming back at their hosts, with their fluid front three once again causing Liverpool's backline all sorts of problems.
GOAL runs through all of the winners and losers on an absorbing night of action at Anfield that ended with PSG prevailing 4-1 on penalties after a 1-1 draw on aggregate…
AFPWINNER: The new, improved PSG project
Luis Enrique insisted all along that PSG would be stronger without Kylian Mbappe – and, at this stage, it really does look like he was right.
As the Spaniard said, in an ideal world they would have held onto their all-time leading goal-scorer last summer, but at least the France forward's departure exit allowed the club to fully focus on constructing a squad of promising players rather than preening superstars.
Mbappe had become a distraction, a monster of PSG's own making, the inevitable consequence of catering to the whims of egomaniacs. The man himself insisted the club shouldn't be known as "Kylian Saint-Germain", but it really did feel like that at times.
Now, though, PSG have become a real team rather than a collection of individuals. The Champions League's 'biggest bottlers' proved their mettle by coming from 2-0 down to defeat Manchester City just to keep their hopes of making the play-off round alive – but winning at Anfield against in-form Liverpool represented an even bigger test of their title credentials and they passed it majestically.
The back four were brilliant, the midfield once again magnificent and the forward line – although still frustratingly wayward in their finishing at times – took it in turns to torment the home side's full-backs.
This is a squad brimming with belief and there's genuinely not a team left on PSG's side of the draw that will want to run into this exciting young side. The new project very clearly isn't just about style; there's real substance there too, with the shift in player recruitment policy already paying off.
PSG 2.0 well and truly arrived at Anfield on Tuesday and provided ample evidence to suggest that even if the Parisians don't finally win their first European Cup this season, they will soon.
AdvertisementGetty Images SportLOSER: Darwin Nunez
Darwin Nunez's biggest attribute is supposedly his unpredictability, but everyone knew that the Uruguayan was going to miss his spot-kick in the shootout. It just felt inevitable.
He'd made zero impact after coming off the bench and, despite a morale-boosting goal at the weekend against Southampton, looked utterly bereft of confidence as he stepped up to take Liverpool's second penalty of the evening. So, it came as no surprise to see Gigi Donnarumma easily save his weak effort from 12 yards.
Nunez will be called upon again by Liverpool before the season is out. Diogo Jota and Cody Gakpo have their fitness issues and the Reds still have plenty of games to play in the Premier League, as well as a Carabao Cup final to look forward to on Sunday, meaning there's still time for Nunez to finish the campaign on a high note.
But there's no changing the narrative at this stage; his Anfield career is quite clearly coming to a close. As Tuesday's calamitous cameo underlined, Nunez is simply not good enough to lead the line for a team with aspirations of winning the Champions League.
We might not see him in this competition for some time, in fact, given the interest in his services from clubs in the Saudi Pro League, which would be a much more suitable level for such a flawed forward…
Getty Images SportWINNER: Gigi Donnarumma
Donnarumma has had plenty of ups and downs since joining Paris Saint-Germain in 2021. He was widely regarded as the best goalkeeper in the world after being named Player of the Tournament at Euro 2024. However, there have been times during the intervening four years where he hasn't even looked like the best goalkeeper on PSG's books.
Plenty of unflattering comparisons were also made with Alisson after last week's first leg in Paris, where the Brazilian made one sensational save after another while Donnarumma failed to keep out Liverpool's one shot on target. The tables were turned to a certain degree on Tuesday, though. Alisson made some crucial stops for Liverpool, but Donnarumma was the difference between the two sides.
As Luis Enrique enthused in his post-match interview with , "Gigi was like Alisson in the first match!"
AFPLOSER: Ibrahima Konate
Just like Liverpool, Ibrahima Konate's luck ran out at Anfield.
The France defender had been incredibly fortunate to escape a red card in the first leg at Parc des Princes, after quite clearly barging Bradley Barcola off the ball as the winger bore down on goal. However, there was no reprieve for Konate 12 minutes into the return fixture on Merseyside when he made a mess of trying to cut out Bradley Barcola's low cross, thus presenting Dembele with an open goal that not even one of the most infamously wasteful players in world football was going to pass up.
The frustrating thing is that Konate actually played well for the most part on Tuesday. No Liverpool player made more clearances (five) and only Alexis Mac Allister reclaimed possession on more occasions, while his pass completion percentage (91.7) was also higher than anyone else wearing red.
However, as these games against PSG perfectly illustrated, Konate always has a colossal error in him. Last week's went unpunished, but Tuesday's did not, and Liverpool are out of the Champions League as a result.