{"id":389558,"date":"2026-04-09T09:07:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T09:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/389558\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T09:07:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T09:07:09","slug":"slot-hoping-anfield-can-spark-liverpool-to-a-new-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/389558\/","title":{"rendered":"Slot hoping Anfield can spark Liverpool to a new level"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Arne Slot believes Anfield can help inspire Liverpool to a famous Champions League comeback against Paris St-Germain after his team entered &#8220;survival mode&#8221; to escape the quarter-final first leg with a 2-0 defeat.<\/p>\n<p>Having arrived in France bruised by their 4-0 FA Cup humiliation at Manchester City, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rte.ie\/sport\/soccer\/2026\/0408\/1567226-parisian-pain-for-liverpool-as-psg-take-firm-grip-of-tie\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Reds&#8217; passive performance at Parc des Princes<\/a> could easily have been punished by more than Desire Doue and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia&#8217;s goals.<\/p>\n<p>Under-fire boss Slot knows Liverpool rode their luck in a one-sided first leg in France, where the reigning Premier League champions secured a smash-and-grab 1-0 last-16 win last season.<\/p>\n<p>PSG eventually prevailed on penalties after winning by the same scoreline at Anfield, where the Dutchman felt the power of a European night under the lights that they can harness in next Tuesday&#8217;s return fixture.<\/p>\n<p>Asked about their chances of progressing to the semi-finals, Slot said: &#8220;Probably I have to refer to last season, what gives me the best feeling and I have to refer to the history of this club, how much impact Anfield can make for a performance.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We were outplayed here last season, which led to a 1-0 win from us which was unbelievable. Paris St- Germain was by far the better team today, could have scored more than two goals.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But the good thing was that the players of Liverpool showed fighting spirit, kept going.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Almost every time they had a shot, we had a lot of players behind the ball or protecting our box, which was necessary because if you don&#8217;t run back, these players, like the ones from City, are able to hurt you a lot.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Last season at Anfield we played a completely different game and after 10 minutes could have been 2-0 up.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But we need to have a) a better performance and b) we definitely need our fans to help us to create an atmosphere where we can rise to a better level than we did so today.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Vitinha (C) fights for the ball with Liverpool's Ryan Gravenberch\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/00242f66-614.jpg\"\/><br \/>\nLiverpool were clearly second best in the French capital<\/p>\n<p>Slot believes &#8220;everything is possible&#8221;, but knows struggling Liverpool face an uphill battle next week.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We were in survival mode for large parts of the game &#8211; maybe also in the period of the season we are in,&#8221; the Reds boss said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are in survival mode, to find ways where we can try to make sure that their qualities are not seen that much.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But that&#8217;s really, really hard against this team because last year over here we were in survival mode as well.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But, as I said, Paris St-Germain was the better team, but we didn&#8217;t give up and that is why we still have a chance now because they kept us alive by not scoring a few open chances.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The need to prevent a bad night getting any worse is why Slot says he left departing star Mohamed Salah on the bench.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In the last part of the game it was more about us surviving than there was ever a chance of scoring,&#8221; Slot added.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You never know because last season we scored five minutes before the end, but I think this was 20, 25 minutes where we only defending.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Mo has so much qualities but to be 20, 25 minutes defending in his own box, I think it&#8217;s better for him to save his energy for other tough games coming up.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>As for PSG, head coach Luis Enrique will hope missed chances do not return to haunt them.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was an incredible atmosphere, an incredible performance,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We deserved more goals. We&#8217;re a bit disappointed not to have scored more, but this is the Champions League.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"youtube-container\">\n<p>Listen to the RT\u00c9 Soccer podcast on <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/ie\/podcast\/rt%C3%A9-soccer-podcast\/id1351258823\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Apple Podcasts<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/6pcqDQ1AO2djjP7xBSewtl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Spotify<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rte.ie\/radio1\/podcast\/podcast_soccerrepublic.xml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wherever you get your podcasts<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arne Slot believes Anfield can help inspire Liverpool to a famous Champions League comeback against Paris St-Germain after&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-389558","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}