Key events
90 min +3: You’ll Never Walk Alone ringing off the concrete walls of the Parc des Princes. “That PSG are down one nil is a blasphemy against all sporting logic,” suggests Kári Tulinius. “But sometimes the goddess Fortuna bestows its blessings on a team, and this season Liverpool have clearly made the correct ritual offerings.”
90 min +2: Now it’s Liverpool’s turn to keep hold of the ball. The Parc des Princes has fallen very quiet, apart from the away fans in party mode.
90 min: Elliott was in fact on the pitch for 47 seconds before scoring. Not 40. The slowcoach. There will be five additional minutes.
89 min: Great work by Nunez, too. And Alisson, who has made so many saves, was also involved. This is gloriously absurd!
88 min: Elliott was only on the pitch for 40 seconds. What a substitution!
GOAL! PSG 0-1 Liverpool (Elliott 87)
Who writes these stories? Alisson launches long. Nunez wins a header on the edge of the box, swatting Marquinhos aside. He’s within his rights to shoot from the edge of the D, but instead spots Elliott coming in from the right. Elliott enters the box, opens his body, and steers a shot across Donnarumma and into the bottom right! Smash. And. Grab!
86 min: Salah trudges off, replaced by Harvey Elliott. He looks thoroughly frustrated.
84 min: Dembele sashays in from the right and aims for the bottom left. He looks to have beaten Alisson at last, only for the keeper to somehow extend his arm and claw the ball away from danger. Salah has the opportunity to release Nunez on the counter, but his attempt to find his team-mate is appalling. Salah has been on the periphery all evening, and that’s not necessarily his fault, but on the rare occasion he’s had the chance to do something, he’s been woefully below par.
83 min: PSG continue to push Liverpool back. No way through right now.
81 min: Hakimi crosses violently from the right with Ramos lurking, ready to pounce, six yards out. Alisson stoops to gather. This has been a stunning goalkeeping performance.
80 min: Doué zips in from the left and, upon reaching the edge of the box, curls powerfully towards the top right. it’s heading in, but Alisson makes yet another world-class save, sticking out a long arm to turn around the post. Nothing comes of the corner.
79 min: Warren Zaïre-Emery and Gonçalo Ramos replace Fabián Ruiz and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. Liverpool respond by switching out Ryan Gravenberch for Wataru Endo.
78 min: Doué slips a pass down the inside-right to release Hakimi, who shoots across Alisson. Another strong arm denies the shot. Then the flag pops up for offside anyway.
77 min: Gravenberch spins into space in the middle of the park, as he so often does, and has the opportunity to release Salah into acres down the right. Instead he clanks the pass out for a throw. Liverpool haven’t clicked in attack at all this evening.
75 min: PSG pass and probe. Doué then takes the opportunity to go over Jones’ carelessly hung-out leg, as he makes good down the right. A free kick, from which Doué threads a shot towards the bottom right. Alisson claims with ease.
73 min: A speculative ball looped down the middle of the mark. Nunez extends a leg in the hope of poking past Donnarumma, but only manages to catch the keeper in the face. Accidental, to be clear, and Nunez was entitled to go for the loose ball. Thankfully the keeper’s up and about again soon enough. “Everyone needs to relax a bit,” argues Johnathan Kaszynski. “Did people really think even Liverpool could walk into Paris and have no trouble coping with a team full of excellent players in excellent form?”
71 min: Doué hoicks over the bar from long distance. PSG have now had 25 attempts at goal this evening. Liverpool still hang on by their fingernails.
70 min: Mendes twists down the left and shoots low. Another strong Allison hand. Then Dembele flashes a wild shot high and wide right. Van Dijk prepares to take the resulting goal kick, but takes so long over it that he goes into the book.
68 min: Dembele worms his way down the right, turning Robertson inside and out like a pair of freshly laundered socks. His low cross fizzes through the six-yard box, but there’s nobody there to convert. Meanwhile here’s Ingo Herzke: “This reminds me of PSG’s semi-finals last year against Borussia Dortmund; only they haven’t hit the woodwork quite as much. So it’s going to be one goal for Liverpool sooner or later.”
67 min: Nothing comes of the corner. Then Darwin Núñez and Curtis Jones come on for Diogo Jota and Luis Díaz. “We have had quite a bunch of unconvincing wins in the Prem,” admits Paul Quigley. “But nothing like this. No real injuries, just a totally insipid and cowardly performance. Is all the drama behind the scenes with the three contract boys (Salah, VVD, Trent), the three unwanted forwards (Diaz, Nunez, Jota) and the slow fullbacks coming back to haunt us?”
66 min: Dembele takes a touch down the right and wins a corner. Before it can be taken, Bradley Barcola makes way for Désiré Doué.
64 min: Liverpool launch a three-on-three counter. Salah curls in from the right to nobody in particular. A waste of a promising break. Liverpool haven’t had many opportunities, and they can’t afford to be so profligate.
63 min: One Dembele corner from the right leads to another, and the second nearly curls into the bottom left corner. Alisson wasn’t getting there; Szoboszlai sticks out a leg to divert wide left and over the bar. That could easily have ended up as an own goal. It’s Szoboszlai’s second crucial block of the evening. The third corner of the sequence is lashed over the bar by Hakimi.
62 min: Kvaratskhelia glides down the left at speed and makes it into the box. Alexander-Arnold toes out for a corner, some fine last-ditch defending. PSG claim a penalty but it was a perfectly good intervention.
61 min: Another sign of PSG’s dominance: they’ve made 398 successful passes to Liverpool’s 146. And yet it’s still goalless.
59 min: Salah dribbles in from the right only to be stopped by Mendes with ease. But this is slightly better from Liverpool, who otherwise haven’t been able to get Salah into the game at all. “Maybe those who are criticising Liverpool’s performance need to get things in perspective,” begins Kimberley Thonger. “Most fans of other smaller clubs would give their left arm to be well clear at the top of the Premier League and playing badly against PSG in the last 16 of the Champions League but crucially still being 0-0 at half time. I’ve been supporting Bristol City for over fifty years and mostly it’s been disappointment or despair, bless them. I think Liverpool will beat PSG and advance, and then very likely march on to take the trophy. I confidently predict Bristol City will either fail again to make the play offs or succeed but then fall at the first hurdle. I’ll never desert them though. Obvs.”
58 min: A chance for Salah to get a shot away. He fails to take it, put off by the presence of Mac Allister, clumsily in the road. Donnarumma still hasn’t had any serious work to do.
56 min: Liverpool can’t get out of their half. Another PSG corner is batted away. Jota can’t do anything by way of countering, and Kvaratskhelia comes back at the visitors, cutting in from the left and aiming for the bottom right. Alisson saves again. Kvaratskhelia is borderline unplayable.
55 min: Dembele crosses dangerously from the right. Allison does extremely well to get a strong paw to it, batting the ball away from danger through a crowded box.
54 min: Kvaratskhelia whistles an outrageous free kick towards the top-right corner. A proper arrow. Alisson does extremely well to tip it around the post at full stretch. Nothing comes of the resulting corner. Alisson has been Liverpool’s player of the match so far by quite some distance.
53 min: Jota needlessly clips Kvaratskhelia, who was dancing in from the left but otherwise surrounded. A free kick just to the left of the D. Kvaratskhelia looks like he fancies this.
52 min: Alexander-Arnold steers the ball out for a PSG corner, under pressure from Neves, but referee and linesman signal goal kick. Liverpool have benefitted from all the decisions tonight, both big and small.
51 min: Alexander-Arnold launches long for Jota down the right. Jota doesn’t have the pace to best Pacho. Liverpool wishing Salah had been stationed over there instead.
50 min: Dembele slashes a wild long-distance shot over the bar. In other news, PSG’s possession stat has ballooned to 68 percent.
49 min: Jota strips Dembele and feeds Szoboszlai, who asks too much of Diaz with a pass down the inside-left channel. Marquinhos intercepts. Other options were available. Uncharacteristic impatience from Slot’s Liverpool.
48 min: Incidentally, on TNT, co-commentator Ally McCoist has pointed out that PSG haven’t been involved in a goalless Champions League match for 92 games. That’s some statistic, and we’ve only got another 43 minutes plus stoppages to consign it to history.
46 min: That was a proper rugby-style kick-off, by the way, Ruiz immediately launching the ball into touch near the left-hand corner flag. Liverpool win the resulting line-out.
PSG get the second half started. No changes. “What’s going on?” begins Trevor Bond. “Liverpool are almost certain to win the Best League in the World and PSG are supposed to be the farmer’s league Winners By Default. And yet this has been one of the most one-sided halves of football I’ve ever seen. Fine, if Liverpool end up scrapping a 1-0 win then the narrative will be that ‘Enrique’s team didn’t capitalise whilst they were on top’ but right now that looks a very distant prospect. They’ve been outplayed in every possible way, they can’t even clear the ball without it coming back at them again ten seconds later. Slot has done great things but he’s being shown up right now.”
Half-time punditry. On TNT Sport, Steve McManaman suggests Liverpool are “living very dangerously” and “need a big reboot”. Meanwhile Rio Ferdinand claims they’re “lucky not to be 3-0 down and down to ten men”. He also can’t believe Konaté wasn’t sent off for skittling Barcola as last man. “If you barge shoulder to shoulder, I get it. He’s basically barged him between the two numbers on his back!” McManaman agrees that it was a foul, and the Liverpool player has “got away with one big-time.”
Half-time postbag. “Are Liverpool following their tried and true European method? Outplayed in a disastrous two or three-goal defeat away in leg one, before turning it around on a FAMOUS EUROPEAN NIGHT back at Anfield?” – Drew Ellis
“Liverpool’s current lack of joy is like that of a tourist trying to get up the Eiffel Tower. Crowds, hassle, tedium while battling the line and the ascent. But once they get to the top they’ll enjoy a great view. The pain is just part of the journey” – Peter Oh
“These millimetre offsides spoil so many great goals, and would never have been picked up pre-VAR” – Mark Uribe
“To give an idea of my current state of mind, I think Darwin Nunez could make a real difference” – Nick Smith
HALF TIME: Paris Saint-Germain 0-0 Liverpool
A scoreline of 1-0, 2-0, maybe even 3-0 wouldn’t particularly flatter PSG. Liverpool are also fortunate Ibrahima Konaté wasn’t sent off for barging into the back of Bradley Barcola. Arne Slot has built a deserved reputation of improving his team with half-time advice and tactical tweaks. He’s got his biggest job of the season on tonight.
45 min +1: There goes the first of two additional first-half minutes.
45 min: Mac Allister’s corner from the right is flicked on to Salah at the far post. It’s a big chance, six yards out, albeit one that arrives at warp speed. The ball goes under Salah’s foot and away. What a smash-and-grab that could have been!
44 min: Pacho expertly removes one of Jota’s boots while flapping a finger in his ear. Nothing criminal, but a chance for Jota to take an absolute age in picking himself back up from the floor. The clock ticks on. Then Robertson launches the set piece into the box. Jota has a shooting opportunity from the penalty spot, but has the ball nicked off his toe by Mendes. Corner.
42 min: … van Dijk powers a header clear. Nil-nil at half-time will be quite the achievement if Liverpool can hold on for the next few minutes.
41 min: Diaz nearly gets on the end of a long Alexander-Arnold rake, then up the other end bowls Hakimi over just to the right of the D. Dembele takes the free kick, which pings off a red shirt and out for a corner on the right. From which …
39 min: Donnarumma claims the resulting free kick, wafted aimlessly into the box, then falls into a hot funk as the presence of Mac Allister stops him bowling out quickly. PSG getting a little bit agitated, no doubt wondering how the hell they’re not at least a couple of goals ahead.
38 min: Marquinhos is booked for a fairly cynical check on Jota, who was in the process of cutting infield from the left touchline. Following the generous interpretation of Konate’s earlier challenge, the PSG captain isn’t happy to become the first player carded, but in truth it’s a no-brainer for the referee. A clear yellow.
37 min: Kvaratskhelia is everywhere. He’s sensational. Now he swans into the Liverpool box from the left, taking a shot that gets deflected. Alisson does well to get down and save. Nothing comes from the resulting corner.
36 min: That’s a little better from Liverpool. A couple of counters in short order. Small acorns, and all that, because they’ve been totally outplayed.
34 min: A chance for Liverpool to do something on the counter, Jota getting the better of Pacho and breaking into space down the inside-right channel. But Marquinhos is again on point, making sure Jota can’t find Diaz, in acres on the left. Salah arrives to help, but he’s too late, and the hosts clear.
32 min: Liverpool go up the other end and win a corner. After all that, they couldn’t, could they? Nope. Salah and Jota buzz about, but to little effect, and Donnarumma eventually claims.
31 min: … then the hosts come back again. Dembele is sprung clear down the left. He enters the box and Alisson blocks. Barcola sends the rebound goalwards. Szoboszlai blocks. Barcola has another go and blasts over the bar. How on earth are PSG not ahead?!
30 min: Kvaratskhelia sashays into the box from the right, all shimmies and defence-bothering shakes. He sends Robertson off to Carrefour, then scoops a chip in to … nobody in particular. Liverpool clear, but …
