Arne Slot criticises new Champions League but Liverpool were best when it mattered least | OneFootball

In one respect, Arne Slot is about to emulate Jurgen Klopp before his reign is even a year old, when his predecessor’s lasted eight-and-a-half. In another, he has proof that he has a long way to go. At some point, probably in April, Slot will have won the Premier League, drawing level with Klopp’s final total of one. Yet the German’s record was most remarkable in Europe. Each passing year may render the feat of taking Liverpool to three Champions League finals more extraordinary.

Slot’s experience of being Europe’s best was different. Liverpool won the Champions League’s inaugural 36-team group. Outstanding in autumn, eliminated before spring, they will not even play in the quarter-finals. Slot always wondered what topping the group would mean. Now he knows: an exit to the team who finished 15th; but who, vastly superior in Paris, arguably slightly better at Anfield, certainly belied that status. But for Alisson Becker, PSG could have won this tie by several goals.

“It is so, so, so unlucky if you are No 1 in the league table that you then face Paris Saint-Germain, which is one of the best teams in Europe,” said Slot. “Normally you face these teams in the semi-final or the final.” Perhaps Liverpool could rue PSG’s misadventures early in the group stage, the points they dropped against Arsenal, PSV Eindhoven, Atletico Madrid and Bayern Munich. That was why PSG were 15th.

“It feels a bit unfair to go out in this stage if you were top of the table,” said Slot. Winning league games can bring him the Premier League trophy but not the Champions League. Consistency can bring a reward from one table, but not another. Knockout football works in different ways. “Both of the teams deserve to go to the next phase,” said Luis Enrique, perhaps not quite grasping it. His side merited progress more, though.

open image in gallery

Gianluigi Donnarumma saves Darwin Nunez’s penalty (AP)

open image in gallery

Donnarumma was PSG’s hero in the shootout (Martin Rickett/PA)

It prompted questions about the nature of being the finest. “It was the best game of football where I was ever involved in,” said Slot. The result meant it was not Liverpool’s greatest match under Slot, however: not compared to wins against Real Madrid or Bayer Leverkusen or Manchester City.

Those were the matches that staked Liverpool’s claim to be the continent’s top team. Indeed, their list of victims this season includes the champions of Europe, England, Spain, Germany and France, even if the triumph in Paris was both fortunate and rendered irrelevant by the penalty shootout defeat at Anfield. Yet in between the special occasions, the reasons to anoint Liverpool as Europe’s finest stemmed from a winning habit: the majority of their performances this season have been admirable but not incredible. Slot’s Liverpool have usually mastered the art of doing enough: without blowing opponents away, like Klopp’s fastest sides, or always passing them off the park, like Pep Guardiola’s various teams or with a side who, man for man, are definitively better than the calibre of PSG but with an all-round competence, underpinned by tactical excellence and managerial acumen in decision-making.

Perhaps Slot could rue the choices of Darwin Nunez and Curtis Jones to take spot kicks; had Alexis Mac Allister and the injured Trent Alexander-Arnold not gone off, perhaps they would not have been required. But even before then, Liverpool, the team who always scored at least twice at Anfield, drew a blank.

open image in gallery

Salah was among those missing his usual quality on a crucial night (Getty Images)

open image in gallery

Arne Slot’s side were beaten on penalties (Dave Thompson/AP)

“If you have to go out then go out in the way like we did against one of the best teams in Europe, making such a fight out of it,” said Slot. He can present his side as outsiders, noting Liverpool were not in the Champions League last season, that they only reached the last 16 two years ago, without mentioning they were in three of the previous five finals. Either way, winning the group was an achievement.

“I am feeling disappointed about being knocked out,” Slot said. “It is something now to take into consideration about how much worth it is to end up first in the league table if you can face Paris Saint-Germain in the next round. Maybe it would be more fair that after the round in between, the one that wins the league table plays against the team that is [in the] lowest position. We were so unlucky to play Paris Saint-Germain because we could have also gone to the other side of the draw. In the end, if you want to win the tournament you have to beat teams like Paris Saint-Germain and that’s what we didn’t do.”

open image in gallery

Liverpool players react after defeat by Paris Saint-Germain at Anfield (AFP via Getty Images)

To be the best, you have to beat the best. Which, arguably, Liverpool did, but not in a knockout tie. Yet there is a contrast between their record in Europe this season and Manchester City’s. Each played 10 games. City won three, Liverpool eight. City’s biggest scalp was Club Brugge, Liverpool’s Real Madrid.

“I do feel in the end of the season, it does matter how we presented ourselves in Europe,” Slot added. “We can be proud of what we did. We won seven games in a row and then we played with our substitutes and lost against PSV. I think we played last week not our best game but today we saw a completely different Liverpool. We go out in a way that I think has impressed Europe.”

But not conquered Europe. Maybe, like Napoli in 2022-23, they were the continent’s finest in the first half of the campaign, but not at the business end. And Klopp’s Liverpool were either the best or very close when it mattered most.