The english side will have to make it trough if they want to salvage anything from a horrendous season
Liverpool and Paris Saint-Germain face off in the Champions League quarterfinals on April 8 at Parc des Princes, the French team’s home stadium. PSG enters as the favorite in a matchup where both teams’ main strengths lie in their attacking lines, promising a high-scoring series.
How are both teams shaping up?
Liverpool heads into the match against PSG at what is possibly one of the worst moments of its season. The Reds are coming off a 4-0 thrashing by Manchester City in the FA Cup and a 2-1 away loss to Brighton in another poor performance.
Even in the matches they win, Slot’s side doesn’t look good. In their 3-1 victory over Wolves in the FA Cup, they left much to be desired, appearing very fragile defensively and lacking clarity in attack.
Despite their current slump, the Merseyside team is one of those that transforms when European nights roll around, as seen against Galatasaray at Anfield, where they managed a 4-0 win in a dominant performance that could have yielded even more goals had it not been for the Turkish goalkeeper’s stellar performance.
PSG seems to be recapturing the momentum from last season after another inconsistent year. They come into this match on the heels of four consecutive lopsided wins in the French league and the UCL, though they suffered a 1-3 home loss to Monaco—with the caveat that they were without Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembélé for most of the match.
PSG’s only concern lies between the posts. The signing of Lucas Chevalier has not convinced Luis Enrique, who has benched him and named Russian Matvey Safonov as the starting goalkeeper—a player who may lack that extra edge to be the starter on a team aiming to win it all.
Still, the 15 goals they’ve scored in four matches and Liverpool’s defensive fragility put Luis Enrique’s side in a strong position for the tie, as they look to seal the deal in the first leg at home.
Head to Head
In their four head-to-head matches, the French have won two and the English two, with the most recent being last season’s tie, which PSG won on penalties after a 1-1 aggregate score.
Despite the even record in head-to-head matches, the history is very different. Back then, both were the in-form teams in Europe, and the matches were among the highest-quality games in the competition. This season, there is a clear favorite and a team going through what is perhaps its worst slump in the last eight years.
PSG will be without Barcola for this match, as well as Fabián, who hasn’t played since January. Liverpool will be without Alisson, who played for several months while injured, as well as Bradley and Leoni, who are out for the entire season; however, they have Alexander Isak back, who won’t start but could come off the bench and will look to recapture the form he showed at Newcastle.
Will PSG win the first leg, or will Liverpool pull off an upset on the road?