Paris St Germain 2-1 Liverpool - Yet another away defeat for The Reds - Match Review

Neymar and Mbappe managed to overcome their injuries and were fit to start as their Paris St Germain side took on Liverpool in this UEFA Champions League Group C showdown. The pair were heavily involved and helped keep their side's hopes of progressing from the group alive by leading them to a 2-1 victory, but it was not the greatest game of football to watch largely down to the PSG players antics throughout the game. The spectacle was ruined by PSG's stars choosing to throw themselves to the ground holding their face as though they'd been brutally assaulted at every opportunity they could. Neymar was the worst offenders which made it even more frustrating as he clearly possesses world-class talent as he showed in the 2nd half when he performed a trick to rainbow flick the ball over Shaqiri's head, if he ever wants to be regarded as one of the world's greatest players he needs to do more of that and less of the play acting and gamesmanship that he was guilty of throughout the game.

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The referee on the night, Szymon Marciniak of Poland also had an awful game. He bought into PSG's play acting and blew the whistle against Liverpool 20 times for fouls handing out 6 yellow cards. Not all were incorrect decisions such as when Sturridge was booked for pulling back Neymar to stop a counter-attack but the ref got far more wrong than he did right through the game. Ironically given how the PSG players were reacting to every challenge it was one of their own players who were guilty of making the worst offence of the game when midfielder Marco Verratti who lunged in on Joe Gomez with a potential leg breaking a tackle that clearly justified a straight red card. Marciniak was in a great position to see the challenge and instantly went to his pocket for a card, but unbelievably it was only a yellow! Verratti then went on to make a series of other fouls that largely went unpunished and there was even one later in the game even he seemed in disbelief that he was not given a 2nd yellow card. Just before half-time, there was further evidence of Marciniak's incompetence when Sadio Mane was clearly brought down inside the box by Di Maria, it was a blatant foul and so a penalty should have been awarded yet the referee signalled for a corner! The controversy was prevented as the 5th official informed the referee of his mistake and after some deliberation, the correct decision to award a penalty was eventually made.

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While the game could well have been totally different had Verratti been dismissed with the scoreline 1-0 and around 70 minutes left in the game the referee was not the main reason as to why Liverpool lost this match. It was another poor display from the players and see's them extend their worst ever run of away games in Europe and the first time they have ever lost all 3 away fixtures in their Champions League group. The Liverpool midfielders, in particular, were poor and seemed to get sucked into all coming towards the ball at the same time without challenging for it and then leaving wide open space for PSG to attack. That is was ultimately lead to both the PSG goals with Henderson and Wijnaldum both being drawn towards Neymar who then played the ball easily to where Veratti and Di Maria could play it around Milner who was left to close down both players by himself. They used that space to play the ball forward to Mbappe who tried to feed the ball over to Cavani, Van Dijk managed to stop it but couldn't control the ball or clear it and it was picked up by Bernat who rolled the ball in to the bottom corner of the goal to put PSG 1-0 ahead.

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Alisson in Liverpool's goal did all he could to keep his team in the game and managed to pull off a number of good saves to deny PSG. But their attacks were relentless as Neymar and Mbappe were being allowed the time on the ball and space to orchestrate waves of attack. Ultimately they got through again as Neymar drew players onto him before playing Mbappe through on the wing. He then played it inside to Cavani who tried to flick it into the goal but was stopped by Alisson. The Brazil keeper had been effectively keeping shots out and parrying them out of play or to a teammate, but couldn't prevent this one from falling to Neymar who jumped at the chance to tap the ball in and give his side the 2-0 lead.

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Liverpool were given a lifeline back into the game with the penalty late in the half and did come out slightly better in the 2nd half. They prevented Neymar from dictating things as much as he did in the first half but couldn't manage to carve out any clear-cut chances of their own to draw level. Thiago Silva proved to still be one of the greatest centre-backs in the game with a brilliant display in the heart of defence while Marquinhos had the best chance to score during the second half with a powerful header from a corner kick but was denied by Alisson. As a result of this defeat, Liverpool are now in 3rd place in Group C with 1 last game to play when they take on Napoli at Anfield. It is so tight now that Liverpool could win the game and still not progress due to goal difference, however, a 1-0 victory or a victory by 2 goals or more would see them into the knockout stages.

That final game to decide Liverpool's fate will take place on Tuesday December 11th but they will have to turn their attention back to their Premier League title challenge as they face local rivals Everton in the Merseyside derby on Sunday.