A theme of the Beatles crossed the pages of the newspaper Sports Diario de France L'Equipe on Wednesday in honor of Liverpool's visit. One of the headlines doubled as a supplication for the vibrant and young PSG team gathered by Luis Enrique.
It was a plea on this side, which finally began playing as a team instead of a collection of spoiled and exaggerated galacts, not to be surpassed by the leaders of the Premier League of Arne Slot. 'Hello, guys', said the headline, 'Don't be afraid'.
And the PSG was not afraid. They threw themselves to this match with a total abandonment. They scratched in the Liverpool in wave after the wave of blue fury. They pressed them fiercely. Again and again, the brilliance of Ousmane Dembele and Khvicha Kvarathskhelia presented his defense.
Liverpool may have isolated uncomfortable episodes this season, the fury at the end of the last Merseyside of Goodison and the defeat of the FA Cup in Plymouth come to mind, but they had not suffered anything like this.
And yet, they survived everything that young guys could throw them. Mainly, that was due to the series brilliance of the Liverpool Alisson goalkeeper, who made a series of excellent salvages to avoid efforts at a short distance from Dembele and Bradley Barcola.
And then three minutes from the end of a match in which Liverpool had been mistreated and beaten and irregular run, the ball was presented to replace Harvey Elliott to the right of the PSG box and Gianluigi Donnarumma could only obtain a weak hand and became the network and Liverpool had won.
The PSG had the right to feel that the night had been brutally cruel to them. But if their nerve failed them anywhere, it was in their finish. Despite Alisson's brilliance, they had a chance that they had become, but when the great moments arrived, they somehow shrunk from them.
Liverpool did not. They had a chance and they took it. That is the team in which they have become. A brilliant team and opportunistic team. A team that expects. A team that deepens. A team that is ready when they need to be.
Liverpool also uploaded his luck. They were fortunate that Ibrahima Konate was not expelled for a thrust in the first half in Barcola and sometimes felt, when Alisson's salvations pushed the ball again at stake, which would simply not fall for them.
But they survived. And they will go to Anfield next Tuesday with an advantage of a goal, knowing that they escaped last night, knowing that they were clearly the second best against an outstanding team and that they can now be sure to progress to a quarter of the final that is probably against Aston Villa Villa
There seemed to be less Liverpool fans in the French capital than usual before a game of this importance, but then, given their experiences the last time the club played here, maybe that should not be a surprise.
Football flirted dangerously with another tragedy of the crowd before the 2022 champion league final between Liverpool and Real Madrid in the Stade of France, when incompetent and incompetent French surveillance led to dangerous accumulations of fans in a bottleneck on the road to the stadium and outside the screws.
Some fans chose not to travel, but those who did it at least saved the trip to the Stade de France, which seems to have become a point of problems for the control of the crowd. The entrance to the Parc des princes, at least, seemed better organized.
However, there was no ambiguity about the attitude towards the game in Paris. In addition to urging the young PSG team to be brave, L'Equipe turned his cover into a pastiche on the cover of Sgt.pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Instead of the Beatles signal at the bottom of the image, the slogan read the battle. And in the center of the image, the four four of L'Equipe were Marquinhos, the forward forward Debele, Virgil van Dijk and Mo Salah.
Of those four, Dembele was the first to have an impact. The opening stages were cautious. The only problems that Liverpool faced were the problems they did for themselves when Dijk and Luis Díaz gave possession.
But then, after a quarter of an hour, Dembele slipped the ball beyond Andy Robertson to the left of Liverpool and then went out to Alexis Mac Allister. Dembele returned the ball to Joao Neves, but hit his shot on the floor and bounced on the bar.
Liverpool had another escape a couple of minutes later. When they could not clear a corner, he played with Kvarathskhelia and curled up his shot around Ryan Gravenber and passed to Alisson. The parc des princes exploded. The repetitions showed that Kvarathskhelia had diverted in accumulation.
The stadium was in tumult. The PSG wanted a red card when Ibrahima Konate put Bradley Barcola while running in the goal. Var decided against him and the crescendo of the boos was deafening. Liverpool was pushing his luck to the limit.
Then they pushed him a little more. Barcola played Dembele, who had 25 goals in all competitions in this game, including five in his last two games of the Champions League, clean through the goal, but Alisson blocked his shot with his legs.
The ball recovered to Barcola and when Dominik Szoboszlai threw himself in front of his first shot, Barcola had the goal to his mercy again. This time, he lifted it on the bar.
Liverpool had not been running irregular as it is throughout the season. Alisson had to go abruptly to keep approximately another low shot of Kvarathskhelia with his right hand and Liverpool was grateful for the mid -time whistle.
The slot resisted the temptation to make part -time changes, although temptation must have been strong. The normal service resumed quickly. Alisson threw himself at full speed to produce a brilliant except with one hand to avoid a free kick from Kvarathskhelia.
Liverpool then survived a series of three vicious corners of Dembele. Szoboszlai kicked one of the lines while threatening Arrow to the network in the near post. The PSG was relentless. The pressure entered wave after wave, but still could not break through.
And then, at the end of the game, Slot brought Elliott. And before the ball touched, Darwin Núñez made his way and placed the ball on his way and Elliott made the rest. And the guys, who had not been afraid, hung their heads desperately.