The margins between PSG and Liverpool over two legs in the Champions League Round of 16 would be imperceptible to the human eye. Whichever way it went, the team packing up the cats would have lamented posts hit, saves made against, penalties or calls they didn't get. When they say penalties is a "lottery," they mean in games and ties like this where the teams couldn't be split. Flip a coin, because we all gotta get home before Mom gets mad.
Each team over the two legs made a wager, and the funny thing is both lost the same wager. In Paris last week, PSG concluded their furious pace and press would create a goal before Liverpool could get loose on the counter. Thanks to Alisson, they didn't cash that bet. Liverpool attempted the same thing, and though maybe not the volume of chances, were pretty mystified at how their furious start didn't produce a 2-0 aggregate lead after Mo Salah had two clean looks and Virgil van Dijk had a header off a corner.
Then PSG got loose on the counter. When Liverpool and Arne Slot do the postmortem, they may, may wonder why they gave PSG the chance.
Liverpool obviously were never going to be as handcuffed at home as they were in Paris. Anfield on a European night demands more force and verve. It would not have accepted the same performance from the first leg. It wasn't going to accept any kind of rearguard action. Even if that might have been the more prudent path.
Liverpool may have taken the wrong lessons from their first match with PSG
But as bad as the first leg was at times, there were lessons in there. Liverpool were better, and more secure, for the last half hour of it. When they pulled their midfield back to fill in the gaps between their fullback and centerbacks, the area where Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Bradley Barcola had romped so freely earlier. Their subs like Wataru Endo shored things up, and Darwin Nunez created havoc when Liverpool could get the ball forward, eventually creating the goal. Liverpool were never going to camp on their own box for another 90 minutes at home, but that doesn't mean they couldn't have been a little more careful.
Restricting PSG's space is what gave Liverpool a foothold in the first leg. Now, it would obviously be very brave to come into the home leg, surrender the ball, and try to hold out for another 90 minutes and hope for another bounce or break on the counter. But is there a more dangerous frontline right now than PSG's on the break? Was leaving this kind of space going to end any other way?
Perhaps Liverpool's thinking was that pressing higher up in their usual 4-2-4 structure would cut PSG off before they could get to the ball to their midfield and forwards. But with only a one-goal aggregate lead, PSG only needed one misstep, one opening, and they got it. Much like PSG six days previous, Liverpool gambled that their pressure and force would get them a lead and shape the rest of the tie. They couldn't have come closer to scoring, but didn't, and much like PSG, paid for it. First rule of bear hunting: You can't miss the bear.
That said, there was still some 75 minutes left, Liverpool controlled the 2nd half as PSG once again lost some starch, hit the post, and could have won it. They were the victim of Gianluigi Donnarumma making up for his team's lack of height by using his to punch and clear every cross that came within his zip code. Any complaint is a minuscule one.
This time, Liverpool's subs made them worse. Curtis Jones and Harvey Elliot were brought into midfield to take advantage of a tiring PSG unit. Jones could only dawdle and give the ball away. Elliot barely touched the ball as Liverpool opted to go over midfield with long balls more and more the more tired they got. Darwin Nunez came on, but looked hesitant and eventually more burned out than the players who'd been on for the whole game.
But ... PSG could have said the same thing about the first leg. This was a semifinal misplaced in the Round of 16. It happens sometimes. Liverpool were tempted to push just a little too much for just long enough to get caught. It happens sometimes, especially when they didn't have much choice. Sticking with the bear metaphors, sometimes you eat the bear...and sometimes, well, he eats you.