March 12 – Talk about a statement win in the post-Kylian Mbappe era. So often the nearly men of European football, Paris Saint-Germain secured a place in the last eight of the Champions League on Tuesday as they downed Liverpool on penalties after levelling the last-16 tie with a 1-0 away win on the night.
Having been beaten at home by the same scoreline a week ago despite totally dominating the runaway English league leaders in Paris, PSG seemed to have blown their hopes of progress.
Instead they confirmed they were serious contenders to finally win the trophy that has long eluded them by deservedly eliminating Arne Slot’s side on a ground where visiting teams are rarely victorious.
Unlike previous heavyweight clashes against the likes of Barcelona, Manchester United and Real Madrid under previous managers, there was no implosion this time as Luis Enrique’s team went ahead early on the night through Ousmane Dembele’s 29th goal this season in all competitions, then withstood Liverpool pressure before upping their game in extra time and winning the shootout 4-1 courtesy of a couple of saves from Italian keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma,
PSG had a slow start in this season’s Champions League, which featured defeats against Arsenal, Atletico Madrid and Bayern Munich while Enrique was criticised for refusing to play with an orthodox centre-forward. But they came good when it mattered most.
“We showed we are a real team,” the Spaniard told Canal Plus. “This is just the beginning.”
It is one of the quirks of the revamped Champions League that despite topping the league phase with wins against European giants Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund and AC Milan, Liverpool then had to face a resurgent PSG squad who conversely had to rely on the playoffs to stay in the tournament.
Slot described his team as “so, so, so unlucky” to come up against “one of the best teams in Europe.”
“That’s the format we are in and we have to accept it,” he said. “But in the end, if you want to win the tournament, you have to beat teams like Paris Saint-Germain and that’s what we didn’t do today.”
Elsewhere, Barcelona cruised past Benfica 3-1 win at home to advance 4-1 on aggregate and will play either Borussia Dortmund or Lille in the quarterfinals.
After a 3-0 first-leg win, Bayern Munich had no trouble advancing past German rival Bayer Leverkusen with a 2-0 away win while Inter Milan beat Feyenoord with a 2-1 victory at San Siro to advance 4-1 over the two legs.
The other last-16 ties take place tonight.
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