Arne Slot fails to see irony in complaints about facing PSG | OneFootball

Arne Slot cursed Liverpool’s luck for facing Paris Saint-Germain in the round-of-16 on Tuesday, but he failed to see the irony that it was partly his own fault.

Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images

Liverpool were eliminated from the Champions League on Tuesday night, with Paris Saint-Germain winning 1-0 at Anfield to secure a 1-1 aggregate scoreline before dominating the penalty shootout by four goals to one.

After the match, Arne Slot bemoaned the fact that his team had to face PSG at all, having topped the League Phase of the competition.

“It is something now to take into consideration about how much worth it is to end up first in the league table if you can face Paris Saint-Germain in the next round,” Slot said.

“Maybe I am [speaking] too soon now but maybe it would be more fair that after the round in between, the one that wins the league table plays against the team that is lowest position after the teams have played.”

Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images

It’s true that Liverpool were unlucky with the draw. They had a 50/50 shot at getting Benfica instead, and the fact that PSG had a poor League Phase campaign despite being a strong team was also unfortunate for Liverpool.

Yet Liverpool had the chance to guarantee avoiding PSG. All they had to do was avoid defeat to PSV Eindhoven in their last League Phase match.

Slot decided not to take the match seriously. As he put it in Tuesday’s press conference: “We played with our substitutes and lost against PSV.”

Maybe that seemed like a smart idea at the time, giving his first-choice players some rest, but by allowing PSV to win he skewed the table, boosting the Dutch side’s position to 14th (rather than 19th with a draw, or 22nd at best with a defeat) and dropping PSG down to 15th.

Without that final-day defeat, Liverpool’s potential last-16 opponents would have been Benfica, Monaco, Brest, and Feyenoord.

Photo by Kristy Sparow/Getty Images for Qatar Airways

The whole point of the new format is that you aren’t meant to be able to take matches less seriously. Every game could matter in the final standings, not just for your position, but for your opponent’s as well.

Liverpool put their feet up after their seventh game and allowed PSV to leapfrog PSG, ultimately leading to their own elimination.

Arsenal fans will be grateful. If Slot had put out a full-strength side and won against PSV, the Gunners would have faced PSG instead.