Liverpool vs PSG Preview: Slot Dropped His Best Player and Got Nothing, Now Salah Gets One Last Anfield Night

Arne Slot stood in the technical area at the Parc des Princes last Tuesday and watched his team register zero shots on target. Not one in ninety minutes, not a single frame for Matvey Safonov to worry about, not a hint of the attacking identity that carried Liverpool to the top of the Champions League league phase four months ago. The numbers from that night told a story of near-total submission: 26% possession, 0.17 expected goals, and Mohamed Salah, the club's all-time leading Champions League scorer, sitting on the bench in a tracksuit for the entire match.

Slot had gambled on a back five, on containment, on surviving in Paris and bringing the tie back to Anfield alive. PSG scored twice anyway. Désiré Doué's deflected opener in the eleventh minute and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia's composed finish after rounding Mamardashvili in the sixty-fifth gave the defending champions a 2-0 lead that flattered Liverpool, because it could easily have been four.

Now comes the part that either rescues this season or buries it entirely. Liverpool trail 2-0 heading into Tuesday's second leg at Anfield, needing at least three goals against a side that has conceded just three in its last five matches. Slot has been leaning on the 4-0 demolition of Messi's Barcelona from three goals down in his build-up.

He is right about needing to be special. He is also right that the approach in Paris cannot be repeated. “The last time we faced each other, they had the ball for 76 per cent of the time,” Slot acknowledged, “so that's the first thing we have to change tomorrow.” The back five is gone. Salah is back. Liverpool's season comes down to ninety minutes, and for the 33-year-old playing out his final weeks at the club, it might be his last Champions League night at Anfield.

Liverpool's overall form reads two wins, a draw, and three defeats from their last six matches across all competitions, a sequence that includes the 4-0 FA Cup quarter-final collapse at Manchester City and the first-leg shutout in Paris. The broader numbers are ugly: eight goals scored, nine conceded, a negative goal difference, and a squad whose captain publicly admitted they stopped fighting at the Etihad. Virgil van Dijk's words after that City defeat, that the team gave up at a certain point, have lingered over everything since.

But home form tells a different story, and it is the only story that matters now. Liverpool have won four of their last five at Anfield, scoring fifteen and conceding just three. The exception was a 1-1 draw with Tottenham in March, hardly a disaster. The most recent result, Saturday's 2-0 win over Fulham, provided exactly the kind of afternoon Slot needed before the biggest game of his managerial career. Rio Ngumoha, seventeen years and 225 days old, became the youngest Premier League scorer in Anfield's history by breaking Raheem Sterling's long-standing record with a curling finish past Bernd Leno. Mohamed Salah added the second four minutes later, collecting Cody Gakpo's pass on the right and bending a shot into the far corner in the way only he can. The Kop rose. Salah tapped his hand to the crest. It felt like a preview of what Tuesday needs to be.

The Galatasaray turnaround in March remains the template. Liverpool lost the first leg 1-0 in Istanbul, came back to Anfield, and destroyed the Turkish champions 4-0 with the kind of relentless, front-foot performance that felt impossible after the Paris display. That night proved the squad is still capable of producing a European occasion when the context demands it. Whether they can do it against a side of PSG's quality, having failed so completely six days ago, is the question Slot cannot answer until kick-off.

Paris Saint-Germain arrive at Anfield on a five-match winning streak that has produced seventeen goals and conceded just three. The form line since a 3-1 home defeat to Monaco on 6th of March is close to flawless: a 5-2 demolition of Chelsea in the first leg of the last sixteen, a 3-0 away win at Stamford Bridge to complete an 8-2 aggregate, 4-0 at Nice, 3-1 against Toulouse at home, and then the controlled 2-0 first-leg victory over Liverpool that barely required Luis Enrique's side to leave second gear.

Ousmane Dembélé has been the focal point. The 2025 Ballon d'Or winner is averaging 1.08 goals per 90 minutes in Ligue 1, and his positional fluidity as a false nine caused Liverpool's back five enormous problems in Paris.

Kvaratskhelia, meanwhile, has scored in four consecutive Champions League knockout games, a sequence no PSG player has ever managed before. Together with Doué, who scored in the Champions League final last season and opened the scoring in the first leg, they form an attacking trident that has simply overwhelmed every opponent put in front of them since March.

PSG also have a significant physical advantage. The Ligue de Football Professionnel granted their request to postpone the Lens fixture that was scheduled for the weekend between legs, giving Enrique's squad six full days of rest before travelling to Merseyside. Liverpool played Fulham on Saturday, leaving Slot's squad with a 72-hour turnaround. “We need to prepare this game exactly as previous games,” Enrique said on Monday, careful not to show any complacency. But the calculation behind his caution was clear: “It's almost a trap. Everyone says you won easily 2-0, but things can change so quickly.”

The single biggest difference between the two legs will be the teamsheet. Slot's decision to leave Salah on the bench in Paris was the most scrutinised selection call of his Liverpool tenure. Zero shots on target, 26% possession, 0.17 expected goals. Drop your best player in the biggest game of the season, and this is what happens.

Salah will start on Tuesday. In what could be his final Champions League appearance at Anfield before his departure at the end of the season, the 33-year-old brings not just quality but a narrative weight that the rest of this squad cannot replicate. He has 108 Premier League goals at Anfield, a tally only Thierry Henry at Highbury has ever bettered at a single venue. His inswinging left-footed corners are Liverpool's primary set-piece weapon, with the team's inswing delivery rate reaching 82.5% during a four-match stretch earlier this season, and Liverpool scored more set-piece goals than any other team in the Champions League league phase with five. Against a PSG midfield that lacks aerial specialists, and a goalkeeper in Safonov who was beaten from a corner against Toulouse, set pieces could be Liverpool's route back into this tie.

Ngumoha is expected to start on the left wing after his star turn against Fulham, a decision Slot endorsed in Monday's press conference. “He doesn't get distracted that soon,” Slot said of the teenager. “He shows that he's able at the highest level to take one-v-ones on.” Curtis Jones is the casualty: forced off at half-time against Fulham with a groin problem, he trained on Monday but is almost certain to miss out. The likely midfield will be Gravenberch and Mac Allister in the double pivot, with Szoboszlai in the number ten role unless fitness concerns over Frimpong force a positional reshuffle.

PSG are expected to name an unchanged side. Barcola, who was initially listed as injured, has returned to training after three weeks out with an ankle problem and travelled with the squad, though he is likely to start on the bench. His availability could prove useful as a second-half option to protect Kvaratskhelia, who is one yellow card away from missing the semi-final first leg if PSG advance. Nuno Mendes is in the same position.

Predicted Liverpool XI (4-2-3-1): Mamardashvili; Frimpong, Konaté, Van Dijk, Kerkez; Szoboszlai, Mac Allister; Salah, Wirtz, Ngumoha; Ekitiké

Predicted Paris Saint-Germain XI (4-3-3): Safonov; Hakimi, Marquinhos, Pacho, Nuno Mendes; Zaïre-Emery, Vitinha, João Neves; Doué, Dembélé, Kvaratskhelia

Predicted Lineups

Tuesday the 14th of April 2026 · 20:00 BST · Anfield

25

Mamardashvili

30

Frimpong

5

Konaté

4

Van Dijk

6

Kerkez

8

Szoboszlai

10

Mac Allister

11

Salah

7

Wirtz

73

Ngumoha

22

Ekitiké

Liverpool4-2-3-1

VS

Paris Saint-Germain4-3-3

39

Safonov

2

Hakimi

5

Marquinhos

51

Pacho

25

Nuno Mendes

33

Zaïre-Emery

17

Vitinha

87

João Neves

14

Doué

10

Dembélé

7

Kvaratskhelia

Liverpool vs Paris Saint-Germain

Tuesday the 14th of April 2026 · 20:00 BST · Anfield

Slot's tactical gamble in Paris was not merely unsuccessful, it was historically poor. A back five built around Gomez, Van Dijk, and Konaté, with Frimpong and Kerkez operating as wing-backs, was designed to absorb PSG's positional overloads and hit on the counter. Instead, it achieved the opposite: Liverpool sat deep without ever looking comfortable, allowed PSG to circulate the ball at will, and created nothing going forward. The 0.17 expected goals figure was Slot's lowest as Liverpool manager.

The switch back to 4-2-3-1 is not just a formation change, it is a philosophical reset. Liverpool have to accept they will be exposed defensively. PSG averaged around 69% possession in Ligue 1 this season with a pass accuracy above 91%, and Vitinha, who leads the French top flight in both successful passes and chances created, controlled the first leg entirely. Liverpool's midfield will not win the possession battle. What they can do is win the pressing battle, force errors higher up the pitch, and attack the transition moments that a high-risk PSG defensive line inevitably creates.

Enrique knows this.

The honesty was striking: PSG are not afraid of an open game, because Dembélé and Kvaratskhelia in space behind a committed Liverpool press is as dangerous as anything in European football. Liverpool's calculation is that the alternative, sitting off and inviting pressure as they did in Paris, has already been tested to destruction.

Kvaratskhelia vs Liverpool's right-back: The Georgian has been the standout performer in this tie, scoring the decisive second goal in Paris after beating Gravenberch on the run and finishing with the composure of a player who has now scored eight Champions League goals this season, making him the competition's fifth-highest scorer. If Frimpong is fit, he provides pace and energy but was exposed defensively in Paris. If Szoboszlai is deployed at right-back, as some predictions suggest, Liverpool gain a player who can contribute in possession but lose pure defensive cover against one of the most explosive wingers in world football. Kvaratskhelia is also one booking away from suspension, which may temper his aggression early on, but his ability to beat a man off the dribble and find space between the lines makes him the player Liverpool must contain without fouling.

★ The One to Watch

Vitinha vs Gravenberch will determine who controls the midfield. Vitinha's first-leg performance was a masterclass in tempo manipulation, dictating PSG's build-up from deep and finding pockets of space that Liverpool's midfield press could not close. He has completed more than 2,300 passes in Ligue 1 this season, more than any other player, and created 35 chances. Gravenberch's job is not to outpass him but to disrupt him, to close down his receiving angles and force PSG to build through less comfortable routes. Gravenberch's 89% pass completion rate and defensive awareness suggest he has the tools, but against a player who ranks first in Ligue 1 for Expected Threat, the margin for error is almost non-existent.

Ngumoha vs Hakimi is the matchup that could define the teenager's career. Hakimi inverts from right-back into the half-space in PSG's system, creating overloads that stretch the opposition's defensive shape, and his Champions League assists this season reflect the attacking influence he carries from a nominally defensive position. Ngumoha will be expected to track Hakimi's forward runs while also providing the directness and one-on-one threat that Liverpool lacked entirely in Paris. At seventeen, against a World Cup-selected full-back who has played over 200 games for PSG, it is the kind of assignment that either makes a reputation or exposes a young player. Slot clearly believes in him. Tuesday will show whether that belief is justified.

Liverpool and PSG have met seven times in European competition, and the overall record is remarkably close: four PSG wins to three for Liverpool, ten goals to seven. But the detail that matters heading into Tuesday is the two-legged tie record, and it belongs entirely to PSG. They have won both. In the 1996-97 Cup Winners' Cup semi-final, PSG took a 3-0 first-leg lead in Paris and held on despite losing the return 2-0 at Anfield. Last season, the pattern was even more painful.

Liverpool won the first leg 1-0 at the Parc des Princes through Harvey Elliott's goal, controlled the tie for 102 minutes at Anfield, and then watched it unravel. Dembélé's tap-in twelve minutes into the second leg forced extra time, and when the penalties arrived, Gianluigi Donnarumma saved from Darwin Núñez and Curtis Jones. Doué, who had scored the opening goal in this season's first leg too, converted the winning penalty and PSG walked off the Anfield turf with a 4-1 shootout victory. Liverpool had lost their two most experienced penalty takers before the shootout, Mac Allister through substitution and Trent Alexander-Arnold through injury, and the memory of that night still hangs over this squad.

At Anfield specifically, Liverpool have won two and lost one of their three European meetings with PSG. The venue has historically been a fortress against French opposition, with fourteen wins in eighteen matches, but PSG became one of only three French clubs to win a European match at Anfield when they did so last March, joining Marseille in 2008 and Lyon in 2009. Hakimi acknowledged the history on Monday: “There are no such thing as favourites. We've already seen it is possible for a team to come back even from 2-0 down.” He is right. Manchester United did it to PSG themselves in 2019, overturning a 2-0 home defeat with a 3-1 away win at the Parc des Princes. The question is whether this Liverpool side, in the state it is in, has the same capacity for the impossible.

The gap between these two sides extends well beyond the scoreline from Paris. Liverpool sit fifth in the Premier League on 52 points, four ahead of sixth-placed Chelsea but still chasing fourth-placed Aston Villa for automatic Champions League qualification. The title is long gone, eighteen points behind Arsenal, and the FA Cup ended at the Etihad. The Champions League is not just the biggest prize available to Liverpool, it is the only one left. Elimination here would leave Slot with nothing to show for a season that began with five consecutive Premier League wins and a squad assembled at a cost exceeding £450 million.

Slot's position is under intense scrutiny. Reports last week described his situation as “untenable” if the Champions League exit is confirmed, with reports that Xabi Alonso's agent was present at the first leg in Paris and that the former Liverpool midfielder is being lined up as a replacement. Slot himself has insisted he feels “complete support” from FSG, but the noise around his future grows louder with every defeat. His win rate has dropped to 60% from 105 matches, below the 62% Jürgen Klopp managed across 491 games.

PSG's world could not look more different. They lead Ligue 1 by four points with games in hand, they are the defending European champions, and Enrique is reportedly in talks over a contract extension to 2030. The squad depth that allowed him to rest Vitinha and Neves against Toulouse without dropping any intensity, the ability to have a league fixture postponed to protect his players, and the confidence that comes from winning every knockout tie they have entered this season: it all points to a club operating on a level that Liverpool simply cannot match right now. A semi-final against the winner of Real Madrid and Bayern Munich awaits the victor. For PSG, this is about defending a crown. For Liverpool, it is about whether this club still belongs on this stage.

Italian referee Maurizio Mariani has been appointed for Tuesday's second leg, bringing a style that could suit Liverpool's need for set-piece opportunities and dead-ball situations. Mariani has averaged 3.95 yellow cards per match this season across 21 games and 4.06 per match across his Champions League career, making him one of the competition's busier officials when it comes to cautions. More significantly for Liverpool, his penalty award rate of 0.41 per match in the Champions League is above average, meaning he is more willing than most referees to point to the spot.

He previously officiated Liverpool's 3-2 win over Atlético Madrid in the Champions League league phase earlier this season, a match that featured five goals and plenty of physicality. He also took charge of PSG's 1-2 defeat to Bayern Munich in this season's league phase. Neither side has a particular grievance with his appointment, but for a match that Liverpool need to attack aggressively, with Van Dijk in the box for every corner and Salah delivering from the right, a referee with an above-average penalty rate is no bad thing.

Mac Allister, who was booked in the first leg, will need to manage his aggression carefully. Another yellow card would mean suspension for the semi-final first leg if Liverpool advance. Kvaratskhelia and Nuno Mendes are in the same situation for PSG, which could influence Enrique's substitution decisions in the second half.

There is a version of Liverpool that overturns this. The version that destroyed Galatasaray 4-0 after losing the first leg, that scored five set-piece goals in the league phase, that has put two or more past opponents in 36 of 49 home games under Slot. Then there is the version that registered zero shots on target in Paris, whose captain admitted they gave up at the Etihad, that has lost sixteen times this season. PSG have won both previous two-legged European ties between these sides, they have the deeper squad and the extra rest, and Anfield is not the fortress against French opposition it once was.

Salah's return changes the dynamic, not just tactically but emotionally. This is farewell territory, the final chapter of a nine-year story that has produced 256 goals, and if there is one player in this squad capable of bending a night like Tuesday to his will, it is Salah. Slot knows it, the supporters know it, and PSG, for all their confidence, know it too. The question is not whether Liverpool have the quality. It is whether they have the fight. Van Dijk said they gave up at the Etihad. Tuesday night will show whether the squad has anything left.