Below is a summary of the full article. Click here for the full version or go back to LFC Live.net

Liverpool boss Arne Slot consoles Darwin Nunez after he missed a penalty in the Champions League spot-kick defeat to PSG(Image: Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images)

Liverpool's hopes of a treble are over.

But, after withstanding an early barrage from the revved-up Reds, they cancelled that out within 12 minutes of last night's second leg at Anfield thanks to the prolific Ousmane Dembele.

Article continues below

And, after a 120 minutes of football of the highest calibre, 1-0 to PSG was the way it stayed and so the dreaded spot-kicks were required to decide who would progress to the quarter-finals.



READ MORE:Liverpool player ratings as two excellent and four poor before PSG penalty shootout agonyREAD MORE:'Deserved it slightly more' - Luis Enrique makes Liverpool claim after PSG penalty shootout win

And it was the Ligue 1 leaders who held their nerve, scoring all four of their penalties to triumph 4-1, with substitutes Darwin Nunez and Curtis Jones missing for Liverpool, who now have the perfect chance to bounce back when they face Newcastle United in Sunday's Carabao Cup final at Wembley.

But more about that match soon.

That it was Paris Saint-Germain, not Liverpool, owed as much to their powers of resilience as anything else - not a quality associated with them in the past - and also the sharp reflexes of Gianluigi Donnarumma.

"The goalkeeper, England’s nemesis when the Euro 2020 final came down to penalties, thwarted Darwin Nunez and Curtis Jones during a nerve-shredding shoot-out and, with PSG faultless with all four of their spot-kicks, it was they who moved into the Champions League quarter-finals.

A change in personnel, who can add a ruthless edge, is likely to be needed."

Sam Wallace, in the Telegraph, writes: "Top of the Champions League in January, out by mid-March - Liverpool were dispatched in a penalty shoot-out at the wrong end of Anfield, their nerve finally failing at precisely the moment this club has so often triumphed.

"Paris St-Germain won the toss at the end of a high-quality 120 minutes and took Liverpool down to the Anfield Road end where the visitors had their supporters.

PSG had to negotiate an extra round to get this far and in doing so they seemed to have played themselves into being the form team of Europe.

"As Arne Slot would say later, without complaint, it is an unusual competition that takes the best team of the group stages - a Liverpool side that beat champions Real Madrid - and pitches them against a side as good as PSG.

It was if the James Bond franchise had been rebooted without Bond himself: reimagined as an ensemble piece about really hard-working MI6 analysts and translators and cybersecurity experts, because at the end of the day counterespionage is a team game, Des, y’know what I mean?"

And Paul Gorst, in the ECHO, writes: "It was substitutes Darwin Nunez and Curtis Jones who missed the decisive penalties for Slot's men and no blame should be attributed to either for those pressured kicks, but the former struggled following his introduction for Diogo Jota, who once more toiled himself against the PSG defence.

"The difficulties both Nunez and Jota endured on the night laid bare more clearly than ever that Slot has to look to the market this summer for a shiny new No.9.
For more news relating to Newcastle United, visit our sister site NUFC Latest Live.