Arne

Less than a year on from the day Liverpool won the Premier League title, Arne Slot’s side find themselves in a position where their season rests on qualifying for the Champions League.

For Slot, perhaps his future does too. There will be no silverware and the Dutchman has already said failing to have Champions League football next season would mean this would “definitely not be an acceptable season”.

This was Liverpool’s 17th defeat of the campaign but it came after arguably one of their better performances. Until Ousmane Dembele’s 72nd-minute strike for Paris St-Germain, Liverpool battled admirably against the champions of Europe.

“It was an intense match between two teams who played really good football,” said PSG head coach Luis Enrique.

For Liverpool, there is no shame in getting knocked out by this PSG side. Luis Enrique’s side are a joy to watch and play with confidence when in possession.

But the worry for Liverpool is they have gone backwards.

When these two sides met in the Champions League last 16 last season, PSG were the better side across the two legs but they needed a penalty shootout to knock Liverpool out.

This time around, they outclassed Slot’s side in Paris and, while there were spells on Tuesday night when Liverpool threatened, the final scoreline of 4-0 across two legs was fair.

“Of course we are very disappointed because I think there were parts of the second half where you could feel ‘if we could just score now, this could become a very special night’,” said Slot.

“But the future looks very bright for this team, for this club. We have showed we can compete with the champions of Europe in our stadium. To be the dominant team, not many teams can be dominant against PSG and create as many chances as we did,” he added.

At Anfield, Liverpool’s xG was 1.94 compared with the 0.18 at the Parc des Princes last week.

So there were positives to take, but there is still plenty to be done before they can be considered serious contenders on the European stage again.

After the match, Mohamed Salah waved goodbye to the Anfield crowd after playing his last game for Liverpool in the Champions League.

Now the question is whether Slot and Liverpool will be back in the Champions League next season.

Liverpool boss Arne Slot says Hugo Ekitike’s injury “looks really bad” after the France striker was taken off on a stretcher during Tuesday’s Champions League loss to Paris St-Germain.

Ekitike went down off the ball 30 minutes into the quarter-final second leg, which the Reds lost 2-0 on the night and 4-0 on aggregate.

He was seen holding his ankle and was visibly in discomfort before being taken off the pitch.

“Hugo looks really bad but it is difficult to say how bad,” Slot said after the game.

“Let’s see. It doesn’t look good, that is clear. I didn’t see him at half-time and after the game he was already home. I have not spoken to him yet.”

Ekitike is playing his first season at Liverpool after signing last summer from Eintracht Frankfurt and has scored 17 goals in 45 games in all competitions.

A lengthy period of time out for the Frenchman will be a real blow to his hopes of being part of the France squad at this summer’s World Cup in North America.

Ekitike’s club and international team-mate Ibrahima Konate said this moment will be “very hard” for him.

“I think it is bad,” he told Amazon Prime.

“I don’t know, I have heard many things, I have no word to talk about that because with the World Cup coming it is very, very hard for him and I send him my prayers.”

Liverpool went into their Champions League last-16 tie against PSG last season with a 74.4% win rate under Slot after 43 games.

Since being knocked out on penalties, the Reds have won just 49.2% of their past 59 games, while their loss percentage has more than trebled.

Slot has retained the support of Liverpool‘s owners and has credit in the bank after last season’s Premier League triumph – but that is likely to change if they do not qualify for the Champions League.

The Reds either have to win this season’s competition – which seems unlikely after Wednesday’s performance – or qualify through finishing in the top five in the Premier League.

They are currently fifth – one point ahead of sixth-placed Chelsea.

“Slot is not going to get sacked for losing 2-0 at PSG,” said Warnock.

“They are one of the best teams in Europe. But the defeats are stacking up, and there’s the danger there could be more damage next week.

“It is going to suit PSG next week because Liverpool have to go at them.

“They can’t play like this and sit in at Anfield, when they need goals.

“But what does Slot do? Liverpool‘s system tonight screams ‘you are better than us’. If he opens up, they leave themselves vulnerable and they could get battered.”

Captain Virgil van Dijk accused the team of “giving up” against City last weekend, when Liverpool conceded four times in the space of 20 minutes either side of half-time.

After losing to PSG, he insisted the team would not give up on their Champions League ambitions.

“We shouldn’t forget we play against the European champions of last season and you see the quality they have in the games that they played already this season,” he said.

“We have to be absolutely spot on with everything we do.

“Hopefully our fans can play a big part in that as well. I’ve been through many special evenings at Anfield, I’m very lucky and privileged, and our fans, that’s the backbone of the club and hopefully they can be there for us again.”

Despite Liverpool’s dominance, the talk at half-time was of Mohamed Salah’s missed penalty. For a man who rarely misses, it was an unusually weak attempt and one that would certainly have got the headlines had Liverpool not progressed.

By now, Salah’s hunger for success is clear and it spoke volumes that instantly after his miss, he forced a save from Ugurcan Cakir.

And the Egyptian was involved in all three of Liverpool’s second-half goals to cap off a terrific all-round display.

First, Salah teed up Hugo Ekitike and it was Ryan Gravenberch who finished after Salah’s strike was saved, for Liverpool’s third.

The goal to make it 4-0 was a work of art as the 33-year-old used his left foot to curl a sublime effort into the top corner from outside the box.

“It says a lot about his mentality,” said Slot. “That was a difficult moment [when he missed the penalty] but then to come out in the second half with a great assist for Hugo and then score a trademark goal coming inside and finding the top corner.

“That tells you a lot about his mental strength, so credit to him and the whole team because adversity is something we can talk about when it comes to this season.”

Salah could have easily had more on a night where he became the first African to score 50 Champions League goals and recorded his 200th and 201st goal involvements for Liverpool at Anfield in all competitions (140 goals, 61 assists) in just 211 appearances.

There was some concern when Salah asked to be substituted in the 74th minute, with Slot saying afterwards that he had felt something.

But this was another timely reminder of his sheer class. Salah’s numbers alone are stupendous and whether or not he is still a Liverpool player come next season, there is little doubt that Liverpool have a stronger chance of knocking out PSG with him fit and firing.