Don't worry folks, it's nearly all over. Liverpool saw their hopes of Champions League glory ended in predictable fashion as they were beaten 2-0 at home by Paris Saint-Germain in their quarter-final second leg at Anfield on Tuesday evening.
Despite the Reds dominating much of the second-half with a lively performance against the holders, a failure to convert chances allowed Ousmane Dembele to strike twice in the last 20 minutes to earn the moneybags French side a 4-0 aggregate triumph.
It made for another annoying 90 minutes amid the gloom this season. And while the ECHO was in attendance and provided our usual level of coverage, here's how the national media viewed a positive result for Arne Slot's side.
Andy Hunter, formerly of this parish, looked in The Guardian at how Liverpool ensured this was anything other than a routine defeat.
"Having exited the FA Cup quarter-final 4-0 and with a whimper, Arne Slot’s side exited the Champions League quarter-final 4-0 on aggregate but with a fight," he writes. "For 72 minutes they also had hope, went toe-to-toe with the finest unit in Europe and kept on pressing despite the loss of Hugo Ekitike to a potentially serious injury and a debatable decision to give – and then take away – a penalty with the capacity to change everything.
"It will be of little consolation to Slot and his team that, for the second successive season against PSG, taking the fight to Luis Enrique’s champions and putting the fright on them brought no reward at Anfield. The damage inflicted in Paris last week proved irreparable."
Martin Samuel wrote in The Times about the lack of fortune that has befallen Liverpool since winning the Premier League last year.
"What also must be said is that Liverpool have had no luck this season," he pens. "Some of it has been truly tragic, some just the misfortune that can affect a football club, and it is right to watch our language around a match played the night before the 37th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster.
"Even so it was sadly reflective of Liverpool’s season that, having finally got the summer signings together after only 88 minutes of football going into this match, the trio should be broken up 29 minutes in.
"There was no one near Ekitike when he went down, in the middle of PSG’s half. It looked at first to be an ankle injury, more worrying he seemed to indicate his achilles and mime a snap. He looked distressed, so did Marquinhos, the nearest player to him."
The baritonic Lewis Steele believes in the Daily Mail that Liverpool have reasons to be cheerful.
"This week on Merseyside, there were green shoots of positivity," he reckons. "Belief that with a few minor tweaks, next year could see the Reds get back to the top table once more. Supporters would have left Anfield still cursing but pleased with what they saw.
"Those present at a sodden spring evening here in L4 would have departed feeling proud of their team. It was in complete contrast to those returning from the French capital last week looking forward to the season being over, such was the plight of this side.
"Slot, as he has so often this season, will have left the stadium on Tuesday night questioning what could have been. On another night, they would have put away one of their chances and who knows what might have happened from there."
Finally, the tall man Paul Gorst is adamant in the ECHO that Liverpool can't afford to lose the momentum of their second-half showing.
"If defeat No.17 of Liverpool's season is to have any meaning beyond simple Champions League heartbreak, then this sort of performance must now become the blueprint," he opines.
"Arne Slot's side won't play a better side than European champions Paris Saint-Germain between now and the end of the campaign and they are almost certain not to be beaten again if they reach the levels seen here at times.
"So if the Reds are to have another crack at the big time next term, they must show this same intensity and purpose when the bright lights of Europe's most lucrative competition aren't beaming down on them.
"In fact, with Everton, Chelsea and Manchester United still to come, that perhaps bodes well for a team who clearly prefer their fixtures to carry some hype."





