The Reds were eliminated from this season’s tournament at the last-16 stage as PSG won Tuesday night’s second leg 1-0 after extra-time.

With the aggregate score therefore level as a result of Slot’s side’s win by the same outcome in Paris last week, a penalty shootout was required to split the teams.

And it was the French visitors who prevailed in the spot-kicks, winning 4-1 as goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma saved efforts from Darwin Nunez and Curtis Jones.

See a summary of Slot’s verdict on the evening at his post-match press conference below.

It was the best game of football I was ever involved in. I don’t have the history like Liverpool as a manager, but [it was] two teams of an incredible level [at] an incredible intensity. The first 25 minutes... OK, I also remember the first 25 minutes against Man City at home and the first 25 against [Real] Madrid, but this was unbelievable what we showed in the first 25. I looked at the scoreboard and we were 1-0 down. Over 90 minutes I don’t think we deserved to lose this game of football today. Over 180 minutes, maybe it was deserved that we went to overtime. In overtime I thought Paris Saint-Germain was a bit better than us in this half-hour and then it comes down to penalties and they scored four, us one and we lost.

Of course it is a shock. Maybe it is not the moment to tell them [the players] now – and I didn’t tell them as well – but I can say it here: 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. So, if – if, 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. I hope and think every fan around the world was hoping this game would just keep on going, it wouldn’t stop, because it was incredible. They in the end won and for us, it is so, so, so unlucky if you are No.1 in the league table that you then face Paris Saint-Germain, which is one of the best teams in Europe, but that’s the format we are in. We have to accept it and we will come back stronger next season.

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.

It is something now to take into consideration about how much worth it is to end up first in the league table if you can face Paris Saint-Germain in the next round. It is what it is. Maybe I am [speaking] too soon now but maybe it would be more fair that after the round in between, the one that wins the league table plays against the team that is lowest position after the teams have played. But that is also because we were so unlucky to play Paris Saint-Germain because we could have also gone to the other side of the draw. In the end, if you want to win the tournament you have to beat teams like Paris Saint-Germain and that’s what we didn’t do today after an incredible first 90 minutes of football from us.

I don’t think the last thing [Premier League football] has any influence on that. I think in the second half of normal time we looked fresher and better. There was only one team, in my opinion... I was waiting for us to score a goal, except for the last three or four minutes when [Khvicha] Kvaratskhelia got the free-kick and hit one just over the bar. Maybe these were the only two times they had a shot on target in the second half; we had a header against the post. These are the margins we talk about. I think Mo [Salah] had a shot cleared off the line [and] so many set-pieces we had. We came really close, but I have to give credit to Paris Saint-Germain as well because if you have to play in this stadium with these fans against such a strong Liverpool team and you’re able to get a 1-0 over the line after 90 minutes, then you have to be a very, very, very good team to be able to do so.

You have to accept cookies in order to view this content on our site.