1 year ago
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MANCHESTER, England (AP):
HARVEY ELLIOTT scored less than a minute after coming on as a late substitute to fire Liverpool to a stunning 1-0 win at Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of the Champions League round of 16 yesterday.
Runaway Premier League leaders Liverpool had survived a barrage of attacks at Parc des Princes to keep the score at 0-0 going into the final stages.
Elliott was sent on to replace Mohamed Salah in the 86th minute and became an unlikely hero by sweeping a low shot into the corner of the net with his first touch of the match.
“To go away with a win over here was probably a bit more than we deserved,” Liverpool coach Arne Slot admitted after watching goalkeeper Alisson pull off a string of saves in a match dominated by PSG.
Bayern Munich took a big step towards the quarterfinals with a 3-0 win against German champions Bayer Leverkusen and 10-man Barcelona beat Benfica 1-0.
Inter Milan won 2-0 at Feyenoord.
PSG’s players will be left wondering how they failed to take a lead into next Tuesday’s second leg at Anfield after creating a slew of chances.
January signing Khvicha Kvaratskhelia was outstanding and repeatedly forced Alisson into action in each half.
The Brazil goalkeeper later described it as possibly the performance of his life after also denying Ousmane Dembele in a one-on-one and stopping another effort from Desire Doue.
The one time Alisson was beaten – by a curling shot from Kvaratskhelia in the first half – the goal was ruled out by VAR for offside.
“It’s difficult to think about the match in a positive way. We deserved to win, clearly,” said PSG coach Luis Enrique.
“Football many times is unfair and we have to accept that, but we are ready to [go to] Liverpool.
“We don’t have anything to lose.”
It was the first time PSG had been beaten in 23 games in all competitions.
Watching on from the stands was former PSG player David Beckham.
Despite signing a host of superstar players like the ex-England captain, Lionel Messi, and Kylian Mbappe, the French giants are yet to win the Champions League.
Liverpool, meanwhile, have lifted the trophy on six occasions and underlined their know-how in this competition by soaking up the pressure before delivering a late sucker punch.
An inspired substitution by Slot helped as well.
Salah had been unusually ineffective and looked frustrated as the signal came up for him to leave the field. But moments later, Elliott came up with the decisive moment.
“For us, the only way over here with their fans behind them was to defend as we did and now we are hoping of course that our fans at Anfield will help us,” Slot said.
YESTERDAY’S RESULTS
Feyenoord 0-2 Inter
PSG 0-1 Liverpool
Bayern 3-0 Leverkusen
Benfica 0-1 Barcelona
English (US) ·