Arne Slot delivers brilliantly philosophical take on Liverpool’s heartbreaking European exit | OneFootball

Arne Slot was undoubtedly crestfallen to see his Liverpool side knocked out of the Champions League on Tuesday night, but he admirably took a philosophical view of how the Reds’ European dreams for 2024/25 came to an end.

Despite winning away to Paris Saint-Germain last week, LFC had that lead cancelled out and Anfield and then lost 4-1 on penalties, being eliminated before the quarter-finals despite topping the expanded league phase.

The 46-year-old addressed the media afterwards and acknowledged that it was ‘the best game of football’ in which he’d ever been involved as a head coach, and he also took pride in how his team died with their boots on.

Slot disappointed but defiant as Liverpool exit Champions League

Slot reflected (via liverpoolfc.com): “I am feeling disappointed about being knocked out. I do feel in the end of the season, it does matter how we presented ourselves in Europe. I just said, we were not in the Champions League last season and this season we really showed ourselves.

“We can be proud of what we did. We won seven games in a row and then we played with our substitutes and lost against PSV. I think we played last week not our best game but today we saw a completely different Liverpool. We go out in a way that I think has impressed Europe.”

He added: “Last season we weren’t involved in the Champions League and two seasons ago, Liverpool went out against Madrid after losing 5-2 at home. If you have to go out, then go out in the way like we did against one of the best teams in Europe, making such a fight out of it.”

(Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

A brilliant reflection from Slot

What a brilliantly mature and uplifting reflection from Slot to a gut-wrenching result at Anfield last night.

No finger-pointing at players or referees, no moaning over luck or injuries or begrudgery towards the opposition – just a proud acknowledgement of the improvement that Liverpool have shown over the past two years, and of the sheer quality of PSG, who somehow finished only 15th in the league phase.

The Reds still had a couple of statement performances upon their return to the Champions League, such as the 4-0 thrashing of Bayer Leverkusen and a richly deserved 2-0 home win over holders Real Madrid. Those two results in particular made Europe sit up and take notice of the Merseysiders.

Also, as agonising as it is to crash out at Anfield on penalties – especially when PSG’s goal was laid on a plate for them – there have been tougher European exits to process in recent years.

Slot referenced the meek surrender to Real Madrid in 2023, and the round-of-16 defeat to their city rivals Atletico three years prior was so much more galling as it was undeserved against a team who were in no way superior to us in that tie.

At least on this occasion, we bowed out to one of the best sides in Europe, one which objectively deserved to go through over the 210 minutes of football which were played.

Another silver lining for Liverpool is the immediate opportunity to dispel the disappointment of last night by hopefully winning a trophy on Sunday. Onwards to Wembley!