Elliott goal gives Reds win after Alisson heroics

Harvey Elliott scored a late winner within a minute of coming on and goalkeeper Alisson produced an outstanding performance as Liverpool won at Paris St-Germain despite a dominant first-leg display by the Ligue 1 leaders.

Winger Elliott fired in from fellow substitute Darwin Nunez’s pass to give the English leaders the advantage against their French counterparts and decide the first leg of the round of 16 tie in the 87th minute at the Parc des Princes.

ADVANTAGE LIVERPOOL ⚽️

A ‘smash and grab’ night for Liverpool at the French champions, sub Harvey Elliott scoring the only goal of the game after 47 seconds with his first touch 🤩

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The return match takes place at Anfield on Tuesday (8pm GMT), with the winners facing Club Brugge or Aston Villa in the quarter-finals. The Villans established a 3-1 lead in their away first leg of that tie on Tuesday.

PSG vs Liverpool

New PSG signing Khvicha Kvaratskhelia curled in a classy opener from inside the box after 20 minutes, only to have the finish ruled out.

The £59 million January arrival and forward Ousmane Dembele, who has six goals and one assist in this season’s competition, were persistent threats as Paris piled on the pressure almost throughout.

STOP THAT DEMBÉLÉ 🔥

A lovely nutmeg sets the Frenchman on his way, and his goal bound effort is deflected away for a corner ⚽️

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Alisson made an exceptional save to deny Dembele in a one-on-one and kept out a Kvaratskhelia strike with a one-handed stop as the Reds ended the first half with one attempt.

In between, Ibrahima Konate was deemed by a Video Assistant Referee review not to have been guilty of bringing Bradley Barcola down when the France attacker would have been clean through inside the penalty area.

ALISSON WHAT A SAVE 🧤

The Liverpool keeper makes an incredible save from Dembélé, then another incredible block to deny Barcola, who then fires over the bar when he should score with the 3rd attempt – how are PSG not ahead?! 🤯

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Kvaratskhelia then had a long-distance free-kick turned behind by Alisson, who produced arguably his best save to tip Desire Doue’s shot away at full stretch before Elliott’s goal.

PSG required a knockout phase play-off to reach the round of 16, beating fellow French club Brest 10-0 on aggregate.

Alisson again to Liverpool’s rescue 🧤

Fantastic effort from the free-kick by Kvaratskhelia, but the Liverpool goalkeeper claws it from going in the far corner 👏

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Alisson: Liverpool ‘have to improve’

“It was probably the performance of my life,” Alisson told TNT Sports afterwards. “The manager [Arne Slot] was telling us how hard it would be to play against Paris, how good they are with the ball and that we would have to be ready to suffer.

“We knew what was coming. Paris are a really good team. We know we have to improve at home. They have so much quality with the ball, creating chances.”

VAR says no ❌

Liverpool’s hearts are in their mouth for a moment as VAR checks Konaté’s challenge on Barcola, but the referee waves play on 👀

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Liverpool finished top of the league phase of the Champions League by two points and only failed to win for the first time in Europe this season with an immaterial 3-2 defeat at PSV in their final group phase game.

Liverpool are next in action at home to the bottom side in the Premier League, Southampton, on Saturday (3pm GMT), while Paris’ Ligue 1 game at Rennes starts an hour later.