It was a tie which always looked like having the potential to thrill — and Liverpool vs Paris-Saint-Germain did not disappoint.
Trailing 1-0 from the first leg in the French capital last week, PSG took the return fixture into extra-time thanks to Ousmane Dembele’s early goal and then to penalties after a tense additional half-hour yielded no more goals.
From there, Gianluigi Donnarumma was the hero, saving from Darwin Nunez and Curtis Jones as PSG earned a 4-1 win on spot kicks to advance to the Champions League quarter-finals.
Our experts analyse the major discussion points from Anfield.
How the shootout drama unfolded
With the referee’s coin toss meaning PSG were able to shoot towards their own fans in the Anfield Road end, the mental battle was already won heading into the penalty shootout.
It was Vitinha who stepped up first for Luis Enrique’s side, and coolly dispatched past Alisson following a stuttered run-up.
Unsurprisingly, penalty specialist Mohamed Salah was the first Liverpool player on their list, converting with aplomb to Donnarumma’s right.
Goncalo Ramos, having only come on in the final minute of extra time, made light work of his penalty with a low, slotted finish to the right of Alisson’s goal.
Then things turned for Liverpool. Darwin Nunez’s poor luck this season continued, hitting a solid effort to Donnarumma’s left but at a good height for the Italy international to palm clear.
Ousmane Dembele’s finish was the best of the bunch, slammed to the top-right corner, before Curtis Jones was unable to make any further ground for Liverpool. He shot low to his left but a strong right hand from Donnarumma was enough to stop his effort going into the bottom corner.
Desire Doue then added his own emphatic strike to send PSG through to the last eight and break Anfield hearts.
Heading into tonight’s game, Liverpool had won four out of five penalty shootouts in European competition. Make that four out of six.
Mark Carey
Liverpool bruised… but cannot afford to wallow
This was a game fit for a final, so to see it go the distance was a measure of the talent within both teams.
Throughout two closely-contested legs, Liverpool and PSG set up superbly to combat each other and it resulted in a high-quality encounter with few fouls and a small amount of mistakes. That will ultimately mean very little to the losers, and this defeat will come as a bruising setback in Liverpool’s push for a treble.
Losing to PSG on penalties will hurt — especially as coach Arne Slot’s side showed such blistering form in the league-phase stage where they finished top of the 36-team table and were unfortunate with the draw to land such high-level opponents in the round of 16.
Now, though, they must find a way to move on as Sunday’s Carabao Cup final against Newcastle United at Wembley looms, and that game now takes on extra importance. It is essential that Liverpool pick themselves up and secure their first trophy under Slot.
With the Premier League all-but wrapped up with nine matches still to play, it’s key this talented side have more to show for their season than just the title. This Champions League exit will hurt but there are brighter times ahead still to look forward to.
Gregg Evans
Just how good are PSG?
In the build-up to this second leg, Slot said PSG had been “the best-performing team in Europe so far this season” — a surprising comment perhaps, given Liverpool are 15 points clear at the top of the Premier League and came first in the Champions League’s league phase, while the French side required a late run of three wins just to make the play-offs in 15th place.
But this young PSG team have grown impressively since a slow start to their European campaign saw them beaten by Arsenal, Atletico Madrid and Bayern Munich in their first five matches. They acquitted themselves so well against Liverpool over the two legs, highly unfortunate to be beaten 1-0 in the first leg, then taking this tie to the wire before prevailing in a penalty shootout.
Their recruitment over the past few seasons has been outstanding: the signings of Vitinha, Nuno Mendes, Willian Pacho, Bradley Barcola, Joao Neves, Desire Doue and now Khvicha Kvaratskhelia representing a change of direction after what club president Nasser Al-Khelaifi disparagingly called their “flashy bling-bling” period with Neymar, Lionel Messi, Sergio Ramos and company.
Their progress to last season’s semi-finals seemed slightly deceptive, but under Luis Enrique’s leadership they look like a force to be reckoned with now. Could this finally be their year in the Champions League?
On the evidence of the past few months, they will take some stopping.
Oliver Kay
Alexander-Arnold and Konate suffer injury blows
The sight of Trent Alexander-Arnold limping off the pitch in the second half of normal time and fellow Liverpool defender Ibrahima Konate doing likewise in the second period of extra time threatened repercussions far beyond this tie.
Judging by Alexander-Arnold’s clear discomfort, taking four minutes to walk around the pitch to the tunnel after falling awkwardly and being seen holding his ankle, Liverpool’s 26-year-old vice-captain will face a battle to be fit for the Carabao Cup final on Sunday.
He also missed last season’s final against Chelsea and will be desperate to play this time, particularly given the growing likelihood that this is his last season at Liverpool, with only three-and-a-half months on his contract, no agreement over a new one and Real Madrid circling.
Depending on the nature of the injury, the schedule might offer hope. Sunday is Liverpool’s last game until April 2, with an international break coming up. Alexander-Arnold will hope for positive news, but it looked worrying.
With Joe Gomez and Conor Bradley already injured, Jarell Quansah will be the favourite to start at Wembley if Alexander-Arnold does not recover.
Konate’s issue will also be a concern for Slot, the French defender hobbling off after twice going down with an injury. The Liverpool head coach will hope things are not as serious as they appear.
Oliver Kay
Why did Dembele cause so many problems?
It would be an understatement to say that Ousmane Dembele is in the best form of his career.
The 27-year-old’s 21 goals already in 2025 in all competitions is the most of any player in the top five European Leagues, with his close-range tap-in on Tuesday arguably being the easiest of the lot.
We know Dembele’s versatility means that he can play anywhere across the PSG front line — regularly rotating between the flanks as he chooses before dancing into central areas to punish the opposition in-behind. What is less credited in Dembele’s game is his tendency to drop into midfield areas to create overloads as PSG look to work their way out of pressure.
That was on show throughout this game, but was particularly notable during the build-up to its only goal after 12 minutes when Dembele collected the ball on the halfway line before driving forward to release Bradley Barcola in behind.
Questions were asked about Virgil van Dijk’s defending to allow Dembele to receive the ball in so much space — Wayne Rooney called it “lazy” on Amazon Prime’s UK coverage of the match — but PSG’s midfielders were intelligent in pulling their Liverpool counterparts into different areas as Nuno Mendes released the pass, with the home side’s man-for-man press exploited by simple counter-movements to open up the centre of the pitch.
Had Van Dijk (circled in red above) followed Dembele (circled in white) that far as he dropped deep to collect the ball, those gaps for PSG to exploit would have only been bigger.
Sometimes you have to credit intelligent play, and Dembele’s elusive, slippery style was a constant threat throughout — both laterally and vertically.
Mark Carey
Jota’s drought goes on
Diogo Jota’s goal drought in the Champions League continued as he had another frustrating night in front of goal.
The Portugal striker was tasked with leading the line for Liverpool in arguably their biggest test at Anfield so far this season and had a clear-cut chance early in the first half that he wasted. Rising to meet an inswinging corner, Jota failed to test Gianluigi Donnarumma as he headed over the crossbar.
It set the tone for a deeply frustrating night. His clever movement early in the second half helped keep PSG on the back foot and he worked hard defensively, but he was unable to get another goalscoring opportunity. His evening was summed up when he gave the ball away with his last meaningful action before being replaced with Darwin Nunez on 73 minutes.
Jota departed having touched the ball 33 times, the fewest of any Liverpool player, and had their second-worst passing accuracy rate at 71 per cent.
It’s now 17 games without a Champions League goal, with his most recent one coming in a 2-0 win over Atletico Madrid in November 2021 — a remarkable sequence for a player often cited as one of Liverpool’s most gifted natural finishers.
When asked about the drought leading into Tuesday’s match, Jota said: “Stats are a part of today’s game, but they don’t say everything. I want to score but it is not the factor that influences my game.”
That may be true, but strikers live for goals — and Jota needs some.
Gregg Evans
What did Slot say?
Liverpool’s head coach was magnanimous in defeat and praised the quality of PSG’s performance.
“It was the best game of football I was ever involved in,” he told Amazon Prime. “Incredible performance, especially compared to last week. First 20 to 25 minutes, we were all over them, created chance after chance and, all of a sudden, we were 1-0 down. We played the perfect game, except from scoring goals. It was the same for PSG last week, when they played the perfect game and didn’t score, and it happened to us today.
“It’s always difficult if you put so much effort in. For the first 25 minutes, I’ve never seen them so aggressive and so intense as they were today. In the end it comes down to penalties and we, as Dutch, know how to lose (on penalties)!
“It feels unfair to go out at this round, you’re at the top of the table then you face a team like PSG, but that’s also the nice part about football. Now it’s clear what we have to do for the rest of the season — one League Cup final and nine Premier League games to go.”
What did Luis Enrique say?
PSG’s manager shared Slot’s view that the tie was a classic European tussle but hailed his side’s “personality and character” in edging through.
“Both of the teams deserve to go to the next phase,” Luis Enrique told Amazon Prime. “They play better than us here, but I think my team at Anfield, in a special stadium, showed great personality and character. We tried to play our best, but it was difficult as they’re so intense.
“It is not about consistency, you have to be great in specific moments. We suffered a lot in Paris (in the first leg), but football is that way. Unfair at times. Today we were lucky — they hit the post a few times. We are happy and confident to go to the next phase.”
What next for Liverpool?
Sunday, March 16: Newcastle United (Wembley Stadium), Carabao Cup final, 4.30pm GMT, 12.30pm ET
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(Top photo: Julian Finney/Getty Images)
