A TITANIC STRUGGLE
LIVERPOOL face a Titanic shootout with Napoli for a last-16 place after sinking without trace in another away-day horror show.
Movie star Leonardo DiCaprio watched from the Paris stands as Jurgen Klopp’s men fluffed their lines in a first-half display that made for painful viewing.
The only romance in the city of love came from the all-star PSG forward line who pushed the boat out to prove what all the money and fuss was about.
On a night full of attacking intent it was the home side who did most to enhance their reputation with goals from Juan Bernat and Neymar.
A James Milner penalty brought Liverpool back into range on the stroke of half-time but they couldn’t repair the damage.
For the Reds it was yet another Champions League slip-up on the road. And yet the defeat – the first time they have lost all three away group games in this competition – isn’t fatal.
DAVID MADDOCK IN FRANCE
It merely means a 1-0 home victory over Napoli in the final-day shootout will guarantee progress.
Klopp issued a rallying cry and said: “We need Anfield one more time. I’m calling Anfield…
“The start was like what we expected, it was wild and intense and they took all the risks. They scored twice by winning the second ball.
“We still had to stay in the game but as soon as we had a bit of control you saw the match wasn’t decided.
“We tried everything but didn’t have enough clear chances. When a game starts like that it is difficult to gain confidence so it was never our night.” The Anfield boss also took a swipe at PSG’s theatrics every time they
were tackled and said: “Another little hurdle we had to overcome was the 500,000 disruptions in the second half and the ref still thinks he did everything right.
The Reds were undone by a pulsating start from PSG. The cracks showed first when Marco Verratti sent Kylian Mbappe racing forward and only a desperate Dejan Lovren lunge diverted danger. But there was hesitancy and that led to the opening goal.
This time, after 13 minutes, Lovren was too reluctant to close down the marauding Bernat on the left.
And when Virgil van Dijk could only get a toe on the cross it fell back to the flying left-back who cut inside on his right foot and with the help of a slight deflection wrong-footed Alisson. For