Afterwards, they carried on running. They had run for two hours, run themselves into the ground, run themselves delirious, but at the moment of triumph the players of Paris Saint-Germain somehow managed to find a few more yards in them. Ran towards their fans in the corner, ran in wild circles, tore across the Anfield grass as if it were the Champs-Élysées.
One man did not run. As Désiré Doué’s penalty hit the net, Vitinha simply crumpled, his legs finally giving way, his last drop of energy exhausted. Eventually, with his teammates still celebrating 70 yards away, he hauled himself to his feet and was the first to commiserate with Liverpool’s beaten players. Then, after they had dispersed, he simply stood in the centre circle for a few moments, as if finally claiming the turf for which he had spent the whole night fighting.
This was an incredible game of football, really an incredible two games of football, during which it was hard not to suspect that we were watching the potential champions, however it ended. Ultimately it would have been devilishly harsh on Paris not to have progressed: dominant for at least two-thirds of this tie, explosive and precise in equal measure. In a way, Liverpool’s ability to restrict them to a single goal in 210 minutes was almost as impressive as anything they have achieved domestically this season.
Slot takes pride in Liverpool’s display after Champions League exit to PSG – video
As brilliant as Liverpool have been under Arne Slot over the past seven months, here they met their match in the unlikeliest of forms. For those of you unfamiliar with Luis Enrique’s work, perhaps not even sure which channel broadcasts Ligue 1 these days, this really has been the most remarkable of transformations: backed by gallons of Qatari money, of course, but also by a clarity of purpose, by a wholesale shift in culture, and at times by sheer brute will.
Many great coaches have tried and failed to remake this shrine to self-interest, to celebrity decadence, to consumption for consumption’s sake, to sisters’ birthday parties. But here, in adversity, Paris stuck together, fought together, thought together. It was if the James Bond franchise had been rebooted without Bond himself: reimagined as an ensemble piece about really hard-working MI6 analysts and translators and cybersecurity experts, because at the end of the day counterespionage is a team game, Des, y’know what I mean?
Certainly Vitinha is nobody’s idea of a dashing action hero, even if there was a certain elan to the gash above his eyebrow with which he played the last hour. All the same, he was everywhere: one of those players who manages to cover every blade of grass without ever seeming to run at all, the game’s shadowy guiding hand, its secret conspiracy, its deep state.
Vitinha makes life difficult for Alexis Mac Allister during a dynamic display in PSG’s engine room. Photograph: Allstar Picture Library Ltd/Ed Sykes/Apl/Sportsphoto
“The perfect midfielder,” is how Luis Enrique describes him, and not just because he makes his own team better, but because he makes yours worse. For all his technical gifts, his engine, his passing range, Vitinha’s real superpower is the ability to make you do the thing you didn’t want to do. He makes you press him in areas you don’t want to go. Drags you up and then plays the ball around you. Knows when to hold the ball and when to nudge it first time. Tires you out a little quicker than you were intending on tiring.
Even his penalty was an economy of effort: rolled tantalisingly past Alisson’s left arm, still baiting the press even from 12 yards. In total he completed 103 passes, João Neves alongside him 85, and when the comparison with Xavi and Andrés Iniesta is being made by Slot himself, then it is probably worth taking seriously.
skip past newsletter promotion
Sign up to Football Daily
Kick off your evenings with the Guardian’s take on the world of football
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
after newsletter promotion
Of course there were other supreme performers in Paris blue. Nuno Mendes was stunning at left-back, keeping Mohamed Salah at bay and playing the crucial pass in the buildup to the goal. Gianluigi Donnarumma made a string of key saves. Achraf Hakimi was still running in the 118th minute and frankly medical science still has no idea how. The common thread? All were defensive players, and for the sustained excellence of Ousmane Dembélé and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, this was a triumph built on solid foundations.
Of course they rode their luck a little, too: from the referee, from the inside of the post, from the litany of blocks and scraped clearances as Liverpool began to lay siege in the second half. And of course penalties are a kind of wheel of fortune in their own right, particularly when Darwin Núñez is involved: perhaps the first ever shootout penalty where you’re not entirely sure with what part of the body he’s going to strike the ball.
But evidently Paris had earned their strokes of grace: a calm sense of calling that has never really been the hallmark of this team. The old Paris would have crumbled a dozen times over: beaten back by Alisson last week, convinced of their own ill fate here. In this respect, and many others, Luis Enrique is changing the very fabric from which this club is fashioned.
