Liverpool vs PSG: Champions League preview of the do-or-die clash
Holders Paris Saint-Germain travel to Anfield for the second leg of their UEFA Champions League quarter-final against Liverpool on Tuesday, April 14, 2026.
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s sensational goal, his fifth of the knockout phase, added to Désiré Doué’s deflected opener as Paris secured a 2-0 first-leg win against Liverpool at the Parc des Princes. That marked a contrast to last season’s round of 16 meeting, when Liverpool edged the first leg in Paris before the French side responded at Anfield and progressed on penalties on their way to lifting the trophy. This time, the advantage is Paris’ to lose.
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Paris have won both previous two-legged ties between the clubs, in the 1996/97 UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup semi-finals (3-2 aggregate) and last season’s encounter, but Liverpool have triumphed in six of their last eight Champions League quarter-final ties, even if they have not progressed beyond this stage since reaching the 2021/22 final.
Arne Slot’s side will look to rediscover the ruthlessness shown in the last 16 against Galatasaray and at moments in the league phase. Goals, too, feel inevitable; none of Paris’s 61 knockout matches have ended goalless, while Liverpool have never played out a 0-0 in 37 UEFA competition meetings with French teams.
Possible line-ups
Liverpool: Mamardashvili; Frimpong, Konaté, Van Dijk, Kerkez; Gravenberch, Mac Allister; Salah, Szoboszlai, Wirtz; Ekitiké
Paris: Safonov; Hakimi, Marquinhos, Pacho, Nuno Mendes; Zaïre-Emery, Vitinha, João Neves; Doué, Dembélé, Kvaratskhelia
Views from the camps
Arne Slot, Liverpool coach: “We’ve shown so many times this season that in big games we’re able to deliver a great performance. There is a belief that we can do special things tomorrow, but we need to be very, very special to achieve that [a comeback] because we’re playing against the champions of Europe. That makes the task more complicated, but not impossible,” he stated.
Dominik Szoboszlai, Liverpool midfielder: “It’s going to be a different game, for sure. We’re going to do different stuff in a different way, we saw what they did in the first game and we’ll try to manage it now. We need to go all in and give everything possible. If at the end of the game you can tell yourself ‘I gave everything and still we didn’t go through’ then you can keep your chin up,” he noted.
Luis Enrique, PSG coach: “The match will be very different from the first leg. We need to know how to manage the difficult moments and then play our game as usual. We didn’t come here just to defend the result,” he said.
Warren Zaïre-Emery, Paris midfielder: “It’s 2-0 and that’s already a great result, but it’s not over. We’ll go there with the same intentions and try to win the game. You never know what can happen in a game. We have to remain serious,” he explained.
