Shoot-Out heartbreak as Reds crash out of Europe
Liverpool 0 Paris Saint Germain 1, 11th March 2025
LIVERPOOL 0
PSG 1 (Dembélé 12)
Aggregate Score 1–1
PSG win 4–1 on penalties
During Liverpool’s storied history as England’s most successful football club, the fool’s errand and lottery of a penalty shoot-out has been incredibly kind over the years. Two European Cups. Two FA Cups. Three League Cups, a Charity Shield and a European Super Cup have all been won during the unbearable tension of a penalty shoot-out and between their first game ending contest in this manner in 1974 and 2010, the Reds only lost 2 of 12 shoot-outs, both early and inconsequential defeats in the League Cup, with the other 10 containing both European Cup/Champions League wins, the collecting of FA and League Cups and Semi-Final progress to yet another FA Cup triumph in 1992 and the pain of defeat in Athens in the 2007 Champions League Final with AC Milan. Since 2010 the Reds record in shoot-outs is rather more sketchy with 5 defeats, 3 of which denied them silverware at Wembley at the hands of Manchester City (twice) and Arsenal, but in the credit column are 9 further wins and a triple collection of trophies (European Super Cup, FA Cup and League Cup) and all under the guidance of the genial German Jürgen Klopp as the Reds vanquished Chelsea on each and every occasion.
20 wins
7 defeats
9 major trophies collected
Quite an impressive record by anyone’s measurement.
But losing on penalties isn’t much fun, whether a player having his spot-kick saved by a jubilant goalkeeper or as a fan, not knowing which way to look (do you watch the penalty taker or the direction the goalkeeper is diving in?) or even can you bring yourself to watch it at all? There were no tears last night but I’ve sobbed like a teenage girl when the Reds have won a semi-final or major trophy in a penalty shoot-out, be it live in the stadium in Birmingham, Cardiff or Wembley, and I’ve also driven home with frostbite after watching them lose a penalty shoot-out to Wimbledon on a bitterly cold December night when the team and the club as a whole were at their lowest ebb since the end of the 1950’s. There wasn’t any fun to be had that night! Tears have flowed like a waterfall as I shook like a leaf in a gale force wind watching the penalty shoot-out at the end of the 2005 Champions League Final, I’ve lost all reason and will to live losing to Manchester City in the 2016 League Cup Final on penalties, and sobbed my heart out, twice, in 2022, when Jürgen Klopp’s “kids” and “boys” were largely outplayed in both Wembley finals that year and still found the resolve to prevail in the lottery of a penalty shoot-out.
But losing on penalties isn’t much fun.
In all Red honesty, the better team over the two legs triumphed. Liverpool were incredibly lucky to escape from the Parc des Princes with a 1–0 1st Leg advantage and together with this luck were indebted to a world class display from the greatest goalkeeper in the world, Alisson Becker. Last night, Mo Salah could have changed the whole complexion of the tie with two fantastic goal scoring chances in the opening 6 minutes with the first brilliantly denied by a last ditch and desperate goal saving block from Nuno Mendes. But following Ousmane Dembélé’s 12th minute aggregate levelling goal, PSG were by far the better team, exploiting the space in midfield vacated by a forward pressing Dominik Szoboszlai (who didn’t stop running all evening and didn’t deserve to be on the losing team, but was) and without him, the Reds were far too easy to play through in the transitional lines between defence into midfield, and too much time afforded on the ball for the marauding runs of Ousmane Dembélé and Bradley Barcola.
I was calling for the withdrawal of the ineffective Diogo Jota for another body in midfield at half-time to stem the forward tide of the Parisians, but instead, and with the same team, the Reds began the second half by far the better team and with Szoboszlai’s goal on 52 minutes ruled out for an earlier offside against Luis Díaz, the Colombian magician then saw his header from a corner clawed away on the goal line by PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma and Jarell Quansah’s 78th minute header striking the far post (he was ruled offside anyway though he clearly wasn’t), but this was Liverpool’s half of football by far and the best 45 minutes they played, in an attacking sense anyway, across the entire two legged tie. But in all Red honesty once more, extra-time was a tidal wave of Parisian blue with substitutes Lucas Beraldo and Désiré Doué going within inches of winning the game, Lee Kang-in repeatedly tested Alisson Becker from long range and the Brazilian goalkeeper saved his pun intended best for a world class save to deny Ousmane Dembélé 3 minutes inside the second period of extra-time. The Reds were hanging on for penalties and hoping their remarkable record in penalty shoot-outs as well as their luck would hold.
It didn’t, and the dream of a seventh European Cup/Champions League is over for another season.
At the time of writing, Trent Alexander-Arnold is expected to miss Sunday’s League Cup Final at Wembley with Newcastle United following the ankle injury he sustained last evening, with Ibrahima Konaté (hopefully) passed fit following his injury substitution towards the end of last night’s game. If, as expected, Alexander-Arnold misses out, Jarell Quansah will be an able deputy in the albeit unfamiliar role of right-back and if Konaté doesn’t make it, step forward Wataru Endō and another game at centre-half for the central midfielder. Can he repeat his heroics of the League Cup Final of 12 months ago? It could be a patchwork team for yet another Wembley final: Diogo Jota doesn’t have 90 minutes in him, Cody Gakpo is clearly not fit following his return from injury, Darwin Núñez and Curtis Jones each have an albatross weighing on their shoulders following last evening’s penalty misses and the team as a whole are still recovering from the energy suck of playing extra-time as well as the sporting suck of losing at home in the most prestigious competition in European football.
Penalty shoot-out on Sunday anyone?
Up with the Mighty Reds.
Down with the stupid Children of the Matrix sending vile abuse on social media to Darwin Núñez and Curtis Jones.
They will never fully comprehend how lucky they are to have been bathed in the glory of Liverpool Football Club.
Arne’s Afterword
“It was the best game of football I was ever involved in. I don’t have the history like Liverpool as a manager, but two teams of an incredible level, an incredible intensity. The first 25 minutes… OK, I also remember the first 25 minutes against Man City at home and the first 25 against Madrid, but this was unbelievable what we showed in the first 25. I looked at the scoreboard and we were 1–0 down. Over 90 minutes I don’t think we deserved to lose this game of football today. Over 180 minutes, maybe it was deserved that we went to overtime. In overtime I thought Paris Saint-Germain was a bit better than us in this half-hour and then it comes down to penalties and they scored four, us one and we lost”.
“Last season we weren’t involved in the Champions League and two seasons ago Liverpool went out against Madrid after losing 5–2 at home. So, if — if, if — you have to go out then go out in the way like we did against one of the best teams in Europe, making such a fight out of it. I hope and think every fan around the world was hoping this game would just keep on going, it wouldn’t stop, because it was incredible. They in the end won and for us, it is so, so, so unlucky if you are number 1 in the league table that you then face Paris Saint-Germain, which is one of the best teams in Europe, but that’s the format we are in. We have to accept it and we will come back stronger next season”.
Thanks for reading. I pen my thoughts on every Liverpool game and in recent seasons, with the addition of numerous pieces of retro writing on Reds games of the past, I’ve curated and created the following two self-published books:
"A final word from The Boss" - link to Amazon
"Chasing the Impossible and a Sword of Damocles" - link to Amazon
Whilst you’re here I may as well brag about the release of my trilogy of recently self-published books too. Beautiful covers eh! As the title(s) would suggest, this is my life at the movies or at least from 1980 to 2024, and in volume 1 you’ll find 80 spoiler free appraisals of movies from debut filmmakers, 91 of the very best films appraised with love and absent of spoilers from 1990–2024 in volume 2, and in volume 3 you’ll find career “specials” on Paul Thomas Anderson and Quentin Tarantino together with the very best of the rest and another 87 spoiler free film reviews from 2001–2024.
All available in hardback and paperback and here are some handy links:
"A Life at the Movies Vol.1" - link to Amazon
"A Life at the Movies Vol.2" - link to Amazon
"A Life at the Movies Vol.3" - link to Amazon