Arne Slot admitted his Liverpool side may have ‘run out of luck’ in its Champions League defeat at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain.
The Reds were knocked out of Europe in heartbreaking fashion as they fell to defeat in a penalty shootout at Anfield. Darwin Nunez and Curtis Jones both saw their spot-kicks saved by Gianluigi Donnarumma, with PSG progressing to the quarter-finals, where they will face one of Aston Villa or Club Brugge.
Ousmane Dembele had earlier leveled the tie with his first-half goal, supplying the French champion’s reply after Harvey Elliott’s winner in Paris last week. Liverpool spurned a number of opportunities to secure its place in the last-eight, with Mohamed Salah presented with a couple of great chances early on, while Jarell Quansah saw a late header come back off the post.
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Having been firmly second-best in Paris a week ago but still coming away with a victory, Liverpool was handed a taste of its own medicine at Anfield. PSG boss Luis Enrique even admitted that he felt both sides deserved to go through to the quarter-finals after dominating their respective games at home.
Slot though believes his side’s good fortune in France may have come to an end back on Merseyside, having seen his team fail to score for just the third time under his reign.
"It was the best game of football where I was ever involved in,” Slot told Amazon Prime Video. “Incredible performance, especially compared to last week.
“First 20/25 minutes, we were all over them, created chance after chance and all of a sudden we were 1-0 down. Probably it was almost the opposite, maybe we ran out of luck because the margins were so small tonight.
"After 90 minutes it felt we deserved more than being 1-0 down. I was waiting for us to score. I don't think the second half, apart from the last five minutes, when they threatened us once or twice. We played the perfect game except from scoring goals, it was the same for PSG last week when they played the perfect game and didn't score and it happened to us today.”
Slot added: "It's always difficult if you put so much effort in, for the first 25 minutes I've never seen them so aggressive and so intense as they were today, and then you look at the scoreboard and you're 1-0 down, an unlucky goal as well. When you put in so much effort that's sometimes difficult and in the end it comes down to penalties and we, as Dutch, know how to lose [on penalties].
"It had everything you'd like to see from a football game. From a Liverpool perspective, you'd at least like to have a draw after 90 minutes but it came down to penalties.
"It feels unfair to go out at this round already, you're at the top of the table then you face a team like PSG, but that's also the nice part about football. Everybody around the world enjoyed watching this game and the margins are small, and if you want to win it you have to have some luck, we had it last week, I don't think we had it today.
"Now it’s clear what we have to do for the rest of the season, one league cup final and nine Premier League games to go."
