Paris Saint-Germain may arrive at Anfield tomorrow night (Monday) ahead of Tuesday's Champions League decider with a 2-0 lead in the bag. But there is a sense of frustration in the holders' camp after what happened in the first leg against Liverpool.
The Reds clearly set out to make it hard for PSG in Paris as Arne Slot chose to operate with a back five for the first time with a full senior squad in his near two-year spell as the club's head coach.
But those plans went swiftly out of the window when, with just 11 minutes gone, Desire Doue cut back on to his right foot and saw his shot take a wicked deflection off Ryan Gravenberch and loop over Giorgi Mamardashvili and into the net.
From then on it was one-way traffic and a brilliant individual effort from Khvicha Kvaratskhelia doubled the advantage in the 65th minute.
However, despite firing in 22 shots at the Liverpool goal, six of which were on target, PSG were unable to add further goals to give the final scoreline at the Parc des Princes a more emphatic outlook.
That gives the Reds, who recorded a morale-boosting 2-0 Premier League win at home to Fulham on Saturday, a chance in the second leg.
And that is clearly much to the annoyance of the PSG players. “We’re satisfied with the win, but I’d say there’s a bit of frustration because we had clear chances we could have taken,” midfielder Warren Zaire-Emery said.
“We know it will be tough at Anfield. We won this first battle, but there will be a second one that will be very difficult.
“We’ll go there with our intentions: to play high up the pitch, in their half, and apply our pressing game.”
That was a viewpoint shared by marauding right-back Achraf Hakimi, who was one of a number of PSG players to be denied by the excellent Mamardashvili, who looks set to keep his place in the Reds goal on Tuesday with first-choice keeper Alisson Becker still expected to be sidelined.
“I think we had clear chances to score more goals,” said Hakimi. “We left Liverpool in the game for the second leg, but we’re happy with the performance and hope to continue like this.”
PSG boss Luis Enrique, meanwhile, said after a match in which the Reds fail to have a single shot on target, that he expects the second leg to be different.
“I don’t think there’s such a big gap between the two teams,” said the double Champions League winner. “We are sure about we can do.
“We know it’ll be really hard to play at Anfield, I’ve done it as a player and a coach now.
“We will suffer, we know that, and right now it’s time for recovery and to prepare the match the best way we can. It’s going to be a complicated match but our mentality is always the same no matter the stadium or the team.”
Whereas the Reds will have just two full days to recover from beating Fulham before facing PSG, their opponents haven't played since the first leg after their crucial Ligue 1 clash against title rivals Lens was postponed by France's Ligue de Football Professionel (LFP).
The decision was taken so the defending champions can "prepare in the best conditions" for the tie.
