Why the sequel to Arne Slot’s favourite tie could spell doom for Liverpool | OneFootball

For a year and more, Arne Slot has often harked back to what he frequently describes as the best tie has been involved in. “My football is Paris Saint-Germain v Liverpool, Liverpool v Paris Saint-Germain,” he said in January. Now he gets to relive and revisit it. If sequels can be worse than the inferior, this threatens to be more painful; for Slot, anyway.

Liverpool exited the Champions League to PSG last year, but on penalties. Now that might seem a respectable, acceptable outcome. The European champions beat Chelsea 8-2 on aggregate in the last round; Slot, who regularly notes that opponents outperform their xG against Liverpool, may note they did so with an expected goals of just 2.23. They posted a tally almost twice as high over 210 minutes against Liverpool last season and scored just once.

But the aesthete and the attacker in Slot savoured the quality in the double header against Luis Enrique’s team last season. “The reason I come back to that game a lot, especially at Anfield, is because it was all about football and this season I have seen so many times tactics you cannot do anything about; I am talking about timewasting,” said Slot. PSG’s tactics – “press, press, press”, in his words – are very different.

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Arne Slot’s Liverpool face Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League quarter-finals (AFP via Getty Images)

Enrique had claimed it was “impossible” there was a favourite in a rematch. Others would disagree. A year ago, Liverpool, top of the Premier League, winners of the Champions League’s group phase, went to the Parc des Princes with that status. Now they may have finished eight places ahead of PSG in the league phase but there is no doubt they are underdogs, and not merely because the French champions have shed their tag as the tragicomic underachievers of continental competitions.

A danger for Slot is that his first tie against PSG represents the turning point in his reign and his second hastens the end of it. Liverpool’s smash-and-grab raid to win in the French capital last March positioned them to reach the quarter-finals; instead the second-leg reverse at Anfield occupied 120 minutes and was followed by Carabao Cup final defeat to Newcastle. A potential treble became a single. It arguably had greater consequences than that, though.

PSG’s Anfield win, just the fifth reverse of Slot’s reign, has proved the first of 20 defeats Liverpool have suffered in 59 games. The heaviest of them came on Saturday at Manchester City, a damaging habit taking a turn for the worse either side of half-time. Virgil van Dijk felt they gave up during that 4-0 demolition. “I can tell you if we have the 20 minutes we had at City here, we will again concede four goals,” accepted Slot.

So can he rouse them? “This year we've become quite experienced in terms of negativity, because of all the setbacks we've had,” said Slot, seeking solace in the past.

“The answer lies in the history of Liverpool,” he said. “This club has always shown that in tough moments they stand up again. I think we've had a lot of tough moments, and we've stood up a few times but then fallen down again. Now we have to show that mentality again.”

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Slot called on Liverpool to draw on their rich history to overcome PSG (Reuters)

It has been apparent at times. Liverpool’s scalps this season include Arsenal and Atletico Madrid, Inter and Real Madrid. “My team have shown many times in big games - apart from two at the Etihad - that we are able to compete with the best teams in Europe,” said Slot. And yet, he conceded: “It is completely true that performance and results have been very inconsistent all season.”

That is a difference with last year; their form and the Premier League table offer evidence of it. There are others. Then their match-winner was Harvey Elliott, now consigned to a miserable year on loan at Aston Villa, surplus to requirements amid Liverpool’s expensive overhaul. Although, really, the match-winner was Alisson, whose nine saves came in what he deemed the performance of his life. “Last year we completely deserved to lose 4-0 here,” said Slot. “It was only thanks to Alisson that we didn’t.” But now the goalkeeper is injured, with Giorgi Mamardashvili deputising; his toughest obstacle may be a fellow Georgian, with Khvicha Kvaratskhelia recording four assists and seven goals already in this season’s competition.

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Alisson was the hero in this fixture last season... (Getty Images)

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...but it’ll be Giorgi Mamardashvili in net for Liverpool this time (Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

Without Alisson, and with Andy Robertson surely on the bench, Liverpool will be down to a pair who started their 2019 Champions League final win, in Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah; more remarkably, there should only be three who started the 2022 final in Paris, in Ibrahima Konate, Van Dijk and Salah. This is the Egyptian’s last tilt at the trophy in their colours; while he rolled back the years in a destructive quarter of an hour against Galatasaray in the last round, he was ineffectual against PSG last year. The Dutchman may have imagined joining Liverpool’s band of Champions League-winning captains; this year, however, it seems utterly far-fetched that he will.

PSG’s identity altered when they finally became European champions. It has done in another sense, too. They are scarcely a byword for austerity but a triumph of coaching means they are described as big spenders less often. That tag has been borrowed by Liverpool and the biggest buy of all, Alexander Isak, could belatedly make his first appearance of 2026, though off the bench. The £125m man has scored a solitary Champions League goal but it was against Paris Saint-Germain last season. The striker who is set to start should have a different point to prove: Hugo Ekitike was excluded from the PSG Champions League squad by Luis Enrique two years ago.

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Hugo Ekitike has a point to prove against former club PSG (Getty Images)

The impression last season’s meeting left was that PSG had far more firepower; perhaps it helped convince Liverpool to spend £300m on attacking reinforcements. Over 210 minutes, Luis Enrique’s side mustered 18 shots on target. The number alone should constitute a warning to Slot. Now, with Liverpool reeling, when their defence is more porous and their defeats more frequent, their hopes seem based on their history of comebacks and the Anfield factor the second leg brings. But first for the Parc des Princes and the risk that Paris Saint-Germain against Liverpool might not be Slot’s kind of football.