Arne Slot, Liverpool Dutch head coach, has confessed, it was “difficult” for him to select players for his side’s clash against PSG on Tuesday night for the UCL match in England.
On Tuesday 14 April, 2026, Paris Saint-Germaine (PSG) ousted Liverpool from the Uefa Champions League 2025/26 after a 2-0 triumph at Anfield; the result means the French Ligue 1 defending champions cruised into the semi finals of the tournament with a 4-0 aggregate victory.
When asked to explain why he started Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike against a smoking hot PSG, the Dutchman answered, “I don’t know”, he said, Isak and Ekitike have “proven to be goalscorers”.
This is second time back-to-back PSG have thrown out Liverpool from the Uefa Champions League.
On why a penalty decision awarded Liverpool was struck by the referee following a VAR check, Slot told Liverpool official website, the Reds “ran out of luck” on Wednesday night.
When asked why his side lost to PSG on home soil, the former Feyenoord manager gave reasons for the outcome. He blamed Ekitike’s injury, which he described as “bad” and then went ahead to say the intervention by VAR to cancel the Reds penalty added to Liverpool’s poor performance against the Les Parisiens.
At his post-defeat press conference, Slot said:
On the showdown…
“I think we made a lot of progression compared to last week. I have to give a lot of credit to the players, how hard they worked.
“And add to that, it seems to be a bad injury [to Hugo Ekitike] – we don’t know [for] sure yet. Add to that another intervention of the VAR, which went not in our favour.”
On the penalty awarded Liverpool that was overturned…
“I think probably last week we had too much luck and we ran out of luck today. But if a penalty has been given, usually VAR tells you, ‘I see contact’ and then the decision should be the on-field decision. I wasn’t surprised that this went against us.”
On Hugo Ekitike’s injury…
“Hugo, I think we all saw in the video and the clips that it doesn’t look good.”
Explanation on starting Isak and missing chances…
“He was twice close to a goal and that’s why you play a striker of his level – there was one header from a set-piece and there was one great run in behind [Willian] Pacho, which he was really close to scoring but eventually was offside.
“It is good to see and to have him back.
“It’s difficult but one of the reasons to play Alex and Hugo is because they have proven to be goalscorers. I don’t know what it is but it is part of our season this season.”
Photo: Liverpool manager Arne Slot | LIVERPOOL FC/X
