Twenty-seven shots to two. Ten shots on target to one. A whopping 71 to 29 possession split. Hell, even on corners it was 14 to 2. Paris Saint-Germain hosted Liverpool in the first leg of the Champions League round of 16 on Wednesday, and thoroughly demolished what has been the best team in Europe this season. The stats were solidly in PSG's favor, as was the flow of the game, the kind that the phrase "one-way traffic" was invented for. In every way but one, this would indicate a dominant win for the Ligue 1 leaders. Unfortunately for the Parisiens, the one advantage they didn't enjoy is the only one that matters.
In what felt like a Real Madrid-like bit of dark magic, Liverpool managed to weather a veritable storm of PSG attacks just long enough for little-used substitute Harvey Elliott to knock home a winner, a feat even the staunchest Liverpool fans could not have seen coming. That's because the only reason Liverpool was even in a position to win was down to an unholy mix of luck, poor PSG finishing, and the immensity of the man wearing no. 1 for the Premier League leaders.
Let's start there, because Alisson Becker was gigantic, magnificent, stunning. Any positive adjective one can think of could be applied to the Brazilian, whose nine saves matched Andriy Lunin last season and Thibaut Courtois in the 2022 final (against Liverpool) for the most in a Champions League knockout match since 2003, when Opta started tracking the stat. It's fitting that those other two goalies did it for Madrid: It really was a very Real Madrid match for Liverpool, the type of match that the giants of this competition have pulled off time and time again, which, if omens are to be believed, could signal greatness for Liverpool this campaign.
That may be getting ahead of things, but that's what a great goalkeeping performance can do for a side. With each Alisson save that kept out the imminent danger—plus one goal from new PSG signing Khvicha Kvaratskhelia that was called off for being narrowly offside—Liverpool got closer to a situation where Elliott could sucker-punch the hosts and complete what feels less like a victory and more like a robbery.
These weren't easy saves for Alisson, either. Not to insult a folkloric USMNT performance too much, but this wasn't like Tim Howard at the 2014 World Cup against Belgium, where most of Howard's record-setting 16 saves weren't terribly difficult stops. Alisson himself had one of those starring games that looks more impressive on paper than in practice, in the successful 2019 Champions League final against Tottenham; that game was his previous personal record for saves in a Champions League match, with eight, but Wednesday's performance was much more impressive.
It's hard to pick which of Alisson's saves was most exhilarating to watch. I could see an argument for his 30th minute kick-save on Ousmane Dembélé, as well as a pair of diving saves, one in the 54th minute on a Kvaratskhelia free kick and one in the 80th on a Désiré Doué far-post laser. However, I think I will pick his 37th minute save on, again, Kvaratskhelia. The Georgian had somehow managed to dribble half the Liverpool defense before firing a right-footed shot aimed at the near post, using Ibrahima Konaté almost as a shield to try to sneak it past Alisson. However, the Brazilian saw the shot and was able to drop quickly enough to get a hand on the ball, despite his momentum taking him in the other direction, given that he was probably trying to cover Kvaratskhelia going far post, as most players would.
While the acrobatics of the other saves, or the chaos that followed the kick-save on Dembélé, might be more visually memorable, this is the one that, to me, stands out as the most likely to end in a goal with almost any other goalkeeper in the world. (For the match, according to Opta, the chances Alisson stopped were expected to score 2.3 goals, based on the shot quality, which passes the eye test for me.) Alisson was that locked in on the clean sheet, and his ability to continually turn away PSG shots gave Liverpool the momentary respites it needed, especially on a day where its vaunted attack didn't show up at all.
Credit, then, must also go to manager Arne Slot, even if it is a results-based bit of praise. Seeing that Mohamed Salah was not on it for one of the few times in his ridiculous season to date, Slot decided in the 86th minute to bench his superstar in favor of Elliott, who hasn't played as much under the Dutch manager as he did under Jürgen Klopp in years past. The thinking, at least to me, was that Elliott could help pack the midfield and help secure what Liverpool would've found to be, under the circumstances, a massively valuable draw.
Instead, Elliott did what Salah, Luis Díaz, and Diogo Jota could not do, and only a minute after stepping onto the field. With his first touch of the ball, Elliott received a Darwin Núñez pass in open space and first-timed a Salahesque finish with his left foot towards the far post. Facing his first shot on target of the match, PSG goalie Gianluigi Donnarumma could only get a weak hand on Elliott's effort, and that was that. Liverpool not only survived Paris but actively ripped out the hearts of the Parc des Princes crowd.
It wouldn't have been possible without Alisson, both in terms of his saves and also from a stellar goal kick that led to the Núñez assist, but I have to give Elliott credit too. Under Slot, Elliott has seen the field less—he is averaging 7.6 minutes per match in 10 substitute appearances in the Premier League—but he has now scored two Champions League winners, first against Lille in January, and now to beat PSG. This might not be the role that the 21-year-old would have hoped for under the new manager, but with Liverpool's midfield trio of Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister, and Dominik Szoboszlai set in stone, Elliott will have to prove his value off the bench. It'll be interesting to see if this goal, potentially crucial for Liverpool's hopes of advancing into the quarterfinals, will earn the former Fulham academy product more minutes going forward.
Whether it does or not, it must be a boon for Slot and for Liverpool that even in a match where nothing went right save for the big man between the posts, someone as out of form and out of favor as Elliott can win a match with one touch. That's the beauty of soccer—or, for PSG fans, the pain—and doubly so when a goalkeeper keeps a match from spiraling into a blowout. Alisson had to perform save after save in order for Liverpool to stay alive, and now it goes back to Anfield, to its famed European nights fortress, with an unexpected lead, all because Elliott was, finally, able to capitalize on his goalkeeper's heroics.
