Dembele double sends Champions League holders PSG past Liverpool
DEMBELE DOUBLE: Paris Saint-Germain's Ousmane Dembele celebrates scoring the second goal. Pic: Peter Byrne/PA Wire.
UNLIKE in the French capital, at least this time Liverpool went down fighting.
After failing to lay a glove on the European Champions last week, they left Luis Enrique's side punch drunk and with a metaphorical bloody nose but, crucially for the resolute Parisians, still very much standing after withstanding a predictably passionate Anfield onslaught.
Liverpool hearts had hoped for a repeat of the Houdini act against Barcelona of seven years ago, but their heads had always feared a lack of ambition in the first installment of this quarter final would leave them short, and so it proved.
They remained very much in the tie until the final 20 minutes approached, but when Ousmane Dembele scored the first of his two goals with PSG's opening shot of the second half, the Reds were en route to a fifth Champions League defeat of the season - an unwanted club record.
With it went their last remaining hope of silverware this season to increase the inevitably scrutiny on Arne Slot, whose safety-first approach clearly paid Enrique's side too much respect in the first meeting.
After going out to the same opponents 13 months ago, it's little consolation that in all probability they may well have lost to the eventual winner of the competition for two seasons running.
Liverpool accomplished inside the first 10 minutes of this second-leg tie what they hadn't been able to six days previously when Alexander Isak, albeit with a harmless effort, succeeded in aiming a shot on target.
With Vitinha pulling the strings in midfield, Paris were never going to mirror Liverpool's bus-parking tactics of the first meeting and clearly weren't intent on simply defending their two-goal advantage.
Backed by 3,000 travelling fans, the French league leaders came close to breaking the deadlock when Giorgi Mamardashvili was forced into an awkward save backpedalling into the six-yard area after losing his bearings when attempting to deal with Dembele's speculative long-range effort out on the left.
The French forward, who spurned a hat-trick of opportunities at the Parc des Princes, wasted an even better chance moments later when he was inexplicably left unmarked less than 10 yards out, but skied an effort on the turn into the Kop.
It had been the first time Slot was able to name Isak, Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike together in a starting line-up, but the £310m forward line lasted less than half.
Former Paris forward Ekitike was stretchered off with what appeared to be a serious Achilles injury after slipping awkwardly on the greasy surface to put his participation in this summer's World Cup in serious doubt.
The enforced change allowed Mo Salah to enter the fray earlier than expected and the Egyptian was immediately into the action. From his searching cross, Milos Kerkez's header forced a low scrambling save on the line from Matvey Safonov.
Virgil van Dijk looked certain to thrash home the rebound from inside the six-yard box, but the Dutchman's point-blank effort was kept out by an astonishing block from sliding Paris skipper Marquinhos, whose stunning intervention was the definition of a goal-saving challenge.
Cody Gakpo, thrown on at the interval for the clearly unfit Isak, almost caught Safonov by surprise at his near post with a snap-shot from 20 yards at the outset of the second-half.
Paris were forced into a change of their own soon after. Desire Doue was replaced by Bradley Barcola after being unable to continue after incongruously coming off second best in a collision with both a TV microphone and a seated ball boy after being knocked off the pitch by a deft push from Dominik Szoboszlai near halfway.
Ryan Gravenberch wasn't too far off target with a fizzing 25 yard effort after space opened up invitingly for the marauding midfielder as the Parisians were increasingly pushed back by Liverpool's growing momentum.
Kerkez, operating as a left-winger as the hosts threw caution to the wind, should have done better when arriving unmarked at the far post to steer a Salah cross off-target.
A grandstand finish looked in store when with 25 minutes left, Liverpool were awarded a penalty as Alexis MacAllister went down in the box under the challenge of defender Willian Pacho.
Elation soon turned to frustration, however, when Maurizio Mariani was invited by VAR to have another look at his initial decision. On reflection the Italian referee clearly saw that MacAllister had gone to ground far too easily and reversed his ruling to ensure justice was done.
Paris made the most of their escape by settling the tie with 18 minutes remaining.
A neat move down the left engineed space for Khvicha Kvaratskhelia to roll a pass across the face of the area which Dembele controlled, cut inside and beat Mamardashvili with a thumping effort into the bottom corner to seal a semi-final berth for the third year in a row.
It was a crushing blow for a Liverpool side who had at least given a truer reflection of themselves at the second time of asking. Dembele finished off a rapier counter-attack in stoppage-time to add a second but the outcome had not been in doubt for some time by that point.
Mamardashvili 6; Frimpong 4 (Gomez 46, 6) (Ngumoha 67, 6) Konate 6, van Dijk 6, Kerkez 7; Gravenberch 6, MacAllister 6 (Jones 74, 6); Szoboszlai 6, Wirtz 6; Isak 3 (Gakpo 46, 7), Ekitike 6 (Salah 30, 6).
Safonov 7; Hakimi 7, Marquinhos 8, Pacho 7, Nuno Mendes 5 (Hernandez 38, 6); Zaire-Emery 6 (Beraldo 81, 6), Vitinha 8, Joao Neves 7; Doue 5 (Barcola 52, 6), Dembele 8, Kvaratskhelia 7.
Maurizio Mariani.
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