Wayne Rooney accused Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk of laziness for Paris St-Germain’s pivotal Champions League equaliser and said that the French champions ultimately deserved their victory.
Despite Liverpool manager Arne Slot claiming that his team had played “the perfect game” even in losing, Rooney pinpointed defensive errors for PSG’s 12th-minute goal to draw level on aggregate before winning the penalty shoot-out.
Rooney, who played for Liverpool’s two biggest rivals in Everton and Manchester United, criticised Van Dijk for leaving PSG goalscorer Ousmane Dembélé with too much space.
“This goal from Liverpool’s point of view is wrong in so many different ways,” Rooney said. “They are trying to press the ball –Van Dijk gets lazy. If you watch Van Dijk, he leaves a massive gap [to Dembélé]. If you switch off for one second at this level you get punished.”
Liverpool did then create chances to win the tie before penalty saves by PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma denied Darwin Núñez and Curtis Jones to end Liverpool’s dream of a seventh European Cup.
“When you lose in a penalty shoot-out it hurts – it’s cruel when you lose on penalties,” Rooney, the former England captain, said. “PSG, I think over the two legs were probably the better team… probably deserved to go through and will be delighted. The penalties were fantastic. You can see PSG have worked on their penalties.”
With one hand already on the Premier League title, which they lead by 15 points, Liverpool also have Sunday’s League Cup final against Newcastle United.
“There is no better way to bounce back,” Rooney said. “I think they have got long enough [to recover]. I think they will be fine. Liverpool have been excellent all season. They have come up against a very good PSG team and it could have gone either way. The players will learn from this experience. Even though they lost the [first] game, they [PSG] knew they could compete and outfight Liverpool at times.”
Former Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge said: “They [Liverpool] gave a good account of themselves, but obviously didn’t do enough. We have to give credit to PSG. They are a very young, talented football club. They were not even bad penalties. No one will feel bad more than the players who missed. They will be devastated – these are the nights you live for as a player.”
Clarence Seedorf, a winner of the Champions League with Ajax, AC Milan and Real Madrid, who was also a pundit for Amazon Prime’s coverage of the match, said that it had been a match of the highest quality. “Liverpool played much better [than in the first leg] and lost,” he said. “Sometimes you have to give credit – this young PSG came here and performed. Hats off to them.”
