Four Takeaways As Mohamed Salah Exits Champions League—Perhaps Forever
Liverpool are out of the Champions League this season after a 2–0 loss to Paris Saint-Germain at Anfield on Tuesday night contributed to a 4–0 aggregate defeat overall.
It means the Reds, who sit fifth in the Premier League and were recently eliminated from the FA Cup, will end the 2025–26 campaign trophyless only a year after sweeping to domestic glory.
The damage was largely done six days earlier in Paris. The reigning European champions held a commanding lead thanks to a comprehensive victory in the French capital underpinned by goals from Désiré Doué and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.
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Liverpool huffed and puffed at Anfield without truly troubling PSG or threatening an always unlikely comeback. There was a first-half chance for Ibrahima Konaté saved by Matvey Safonov, with Marquinhos making a goal-saving tackle to stop the rebound being turned on.
Liverpool were also briefly awarded a penalty in the second half until VAR prompted the decision to be (correctly) overturned after a second look showed Willian Pacho’s virtually non-existent challenge on Alexis Mac Allister. Safonov later saved, relatively comfortably, from Rio Ngumoha.
Ousmane Dembélé put the tie to bed just under 20 minutes from the end, stroking the ball into the bottom corner of Giorgi Mamardashvili’s goal from the edge of the penalty area. At that point, Liverpool were done for and had no chance of getting the goals required to level things.
To rub even more salt into Liverpool’s wounds, Dembélé finished off a clinical PSG counterattack in stoppage time at the end, gladly tapping in a square pass from Bradley Barcola.
Salah Unable to Prove Slot Wrong
Mohamed Salah, having been an unused substitute in the first leg but returning to the Liverpool lineup to face Fulham in between, was benched again. Unforeseen circumstances meant he actually did get on the pitch in the first half anyway.
But if the narrative was set up for the outgoing legend to prove wrong a manager who is increasingly unpopular with fans, he didn’t do anything like enough. Ngumoha, the 17-year-old, ultimately had more impact in his first five minutes later in the match than Salah managed in an hour.
One of Salah’s earliest involvements was the teasing cross that gave Konaté the aforementioned chance that drew a good save from Safonov. Another reasonable cross later on sort of threatened but was dealt with—and that was the extent of the 33-year-old’s impact. A busy-ness in an initial half-hour spell that spread into the early second half probably made it seem like more.
Salah did not take control of the match like fans perplexed at his initial omission would have hoped. In contrast, Dembélé’s impact was efficient and decisive. That was the Salah of old, but not now.
Salah’s Last Ever UEFA Champions League Match?
A more far-reaching consequence of Liverpool’s defeat and elimination is that was potentially the last UEFA Champions League appearance of Salah’s illustrious career.
His summer exit from Liverpool at the end of his contract in June is already confirmed. Salah could feasibly stay in Europe next season, but viable destinations are thin on the ground and a pre-retirement stint in either Major League Soccer or the Saudi Pro League is much more likely.
Salah was a 2019 Champions League winner with Liverpool, as well as a two-time runner-up.
If this is it, he will fall agonizingly short of 100 appearances in the competition, finishing on 98 that also includes spells with Basel, Chelsea and Roma. It’s 50 goals and 21 assists.
Ekitiké Injury a Setback for Liverpool’s Post-Salah Growth
Slot remarked in a Prime Video pregame interview that Florian Wirtz, Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitiké had played only 88 minutes together before this match. That is shocking given that Liverpool spent around $430 million on the trio last summer with the intention of revolutionizing the offense.
Only 30 minutes in, Ekitiké was stretchered off, forcing the manager to put Salah into the game much sooner than he was probably expecting to.
Having also revealed beforehand that Isak was being limited to only 45 minutes because of his recent return from a long-term absence, the Dutchman stayed true to that at halftime. Cody Gakpo was chosen to replace the club’s record signing, who had only touched the ball on average once every nine minutes during the course of the first half.
With Ekitiké clutching his Achilles after going over with no PSG defender near him, there is early concern that he won’t play again this season. Not only that, he could also miss the World Cup.
With Salah on his way out, Liverpool need the trio for the new chapter playing together already if they are to have a chance of being an effective unit next season. Now it looks like that can’t happen.
Frimpong Fails to Impress
Liverpool fans posting on social media during the first half made clear their feelings on Jeremie Frimpong, accused by one X user of “absolutely stinking up the place.”
The Dutchman has had a difficult first season since joining from Bayer Leverkusen, the signing that was supposed to make supporters forget about Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Injuries and a challenging transition for the squad as a whole haven’t helped prepare Frimpong for games like this. He didn’t reappear for the second half, instead replaced by Joe Gomez, a right back noted for his defending rather than an ability to get forward and attack.
As it goes, Gomez himself was withdrawn only 20 minutes later. It wasn’t clear if it was injury-related or a tactical switch, with Ngumoha the player who replaced him.
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