Sports Desk: History is made to be broken. Liverpool has never been eliminated from the knockout stage of a European competition by playing the second leg at home after winning the first leg away. However, this time, something that football pundits were afraid of may happen. Gianluigi Donnarumma fulfilled that fear. This goalkeeper once again destroyed the myth of the Italian defense and took PSG to the quarter-finals.
Despite the brilliant attack in the first leg at the Parc des Princes, the host PSG had to lose the match 1-0. However, in the second leg of the last sixteen of the Champions League on Tuesday (March 11, 2025), the Parisian club did not make the same mistake as in the previous match. They scored early. Then the game continued with attacks and counterattacks. However, neither team scored a goal. When the tie-breaker went to a penalty shoot-out, Donnarumma stood as a wall for Liverpool. PSG won the tiebreaker 4-1 and entered the last eight.
It is an eternal truth of European football that Liverpool’s Anfield is a nightmare for opponents. Last night was no exception. Ousmane Dembele gave PSG the lead in the 12th minute of the match. However, Liverpool then unleashed a flood of attacks on them. Fortunately, Donnarumma blocked those attacks like a Chinese wall.
After the break, the All Reds only attacked. However, the opponents did not allow the hosts’ biggest star, Mohamed Salah, to be dangerous. PSG’s Portuguese left-back Nuno Mendes prevented the Egyptian king from scoring throughout the match. The Parisian team also made several attacks. However, the All Red goalkeeper was no less. Alisson Becker, who made 9 saves in the previous match, made 7 saves in this match as well.
PSG sent their first four shots into the net when the match went to a tiebreaker. On the other hand, Donnarumma blocked Liverpool’s second and third shots. These two shots were taken by Darwin Nunez and Curtis Jones, respectively. This is the first time that an opponent has silenced the Anfield gallery in this way in a European competition.
PSG once again showed that they are very skilled in the second leg of the Champions League. In this regard, the French giants have lost the first leg in 3 of their last 6 matches in the Champions League knockout phase but won the second leg to advance to the next stage. The first of the last two times was in 2020, against German club Borussia Dortmund. The next one was against Barcelona in 2024.
