UEFA Champions League: Three Reasons Why PSG Lost to Liverpool

#1 Defensive frailties

Bobby Firmino scores the winning goal

With the likes of Thiago Silva, Marquinhos, Presnel Kimpembe, Thomas Meunier and even former Bayern Munich star Juan Bernat, few would expect PSG to ship in three goals. That too, three goals that could have been avoided with a few changes here and there. The first one, was down to Thiago Silva and the fact, that the very experienced Brazilian mistimed his header and had to watch as Daniel Sturridge buried the opening goal past Alphonse Areola.

However, even after that, the Ligue 1 giants looked like a deer in headlights with a massive amount of space for Trent Alexander Arnold, James Milner and even Mohamed Salah to exploit on the right-hand side. With both Angel Di Maria and Adrien Rabiot being overwhelmed by James Milner, Jordan Henderson and Jurgen Klopp’s gegenpressing, both Meunier and Bernat had to press forward to help out, but while the Belgian star returned, Bernat forgot his defensive duties every now and then and it showed.

The home side, or rather Alexander-Arnold should have done better with space they were awarded on the right-hand side, especially with neither Neymar or Di Maria helping out and PSG was struck by a wide array of crosses from the young English full-back. Things did not improve as time went on, with Marquinhos struggling to keep hold of either Salah or Mane, who were surprisingly the least influential players on the field.

This allowed PSG to keep a hold of the game to a certain extent, but as time ticked on, it simply became too much and Roberto Firmino made the most of the disjointed right-hand side to score the winning goal.