Arne Slot spoke of his “shock” as Liverpool were knocked out of the Champions League and how “unfair” it was that they had to face Paris St-Germain at this stage of the competition.
PSG won 4-1 in a penalty shoot-out, having won the second leg 1-0 to finish the tie at 1-1, to eliminate the Premier League leaders at Anfield.
The Liverpool head coach questioned the fairness of his side finishing first in the expanded 36-team group stage – and then having to face a team as strong as the French champions in the last 16.
The exit was worsened by an injury suffered to Trent Alexander-Arnold, with Slot saying it was unlikely the full-back will be fit for Sunday’s League Cup final against Newcastle United.
“Of course it is a shock,” Slot said of the Champions League elimination. “And it’s maybe not the moment to tell them now. Last season we were not in the Champions League. Two seasons ago we went out versus Madrid losing 5-2 [at Anfield, at the same stage].
“If you go out then maybe go out against one of the best teams, making a fight of it. They [PSG] in the end won and for us it is so, so, so unlucky that if you are number one in the league table you face Paris St-Germain, one of the best teams in Europe.
“It feels a bit unfair to go out in this round already – to win the group and then play a team as strong as PSG.”
Having suffered the first serious setback of his tenure in charge of Liverpool, Slot added: “It is something to take into consideration, the worth of finishing first if you face PSG in the next round. We were so unlucky to play PSG and we could have been in the other half of the draw.”
Liverpool finished on 21 points, two ahead of Barcelona and eight ahead of PSG – who finished in 15th and had to come through a play-off against Brest to reach this round, but will now be one of the tournament’s favourites after beating Liverpool.
They will probably face Aston Villa in the quarter-finals after a high-quality tie against Liverpool. “I think it was the best game of football I’ve ever been involved in,” Slot claimed. “Incredible performance compared with last week. In the first 25 minutes we created chance after chance, but maybe we ran out of luck after last week.”
That was in reference to the first leg in Paris, with Slot declaring it a “miracle” that Liverpool won 1-0 given PSG’s dominance.
“We played the perfect game apart from scoring goals, like PSG did last week. In extra time maybe they were a bit stronger,” Slot added.
On Alexander-Arnold, who was substituted with an apparent leg injury in the second half, Slot said: “Trent had to come off and that is never a good sign. It didn’t look good, so I would be surprised if he is available for Sunday.” It also comes ahead of Thomas Tuchel naming his first England squad on Friday.
