Liverpool claim smash-and-grab win in Paris after Alisson Becker heroics

Liverpool pulled off a barely comprehensible 1-0 victory over Paris St Germain as substitute Harvey Elliott struck late on having been battered by the Ligue 1 champions for 87 minutes.

How Arne Slot’s side came through their Champions League last 16 first leg will take some analysing but it came down to sheer force of will, an outstanding performance from goalkeeper Alisson Becker and seizing the moment when it finally arose.

Without their man-of-the-match Brazil international Liverpool’s dreams of a seventh European Cup would be in ruins but he kept them in the game long enough for Elliott to slide an angled shot past Gianluigi Donnarumma with virtually his first touch a minute after replacing the quiet Mohamed Salah.

Alisson faced 27 shots and saved 10 of them but at times was the only thing standing in the way of complete annihilation against totally dominant opponents.

Slot admits his Champions League experience is limited, especially compared to PSG counterpart and former Barcelona boss Luis Enrique, but he proved to have a golden touch when it came to substitutes, with another of his replacements Darwin Nunez providing the assist on the counter-attack.

That it was their only shot on target showed how much they struggled to break out of their own final third never mind the half with the PSG’s swarm suffocating.

The hosts, for so long the butt of the joke in their expensive but so far futile chase for Champions League glory, showed they are a force to be reckoned with having come up short in the semi-final last season.

Watched by David Beckham on his return to one of his former clubs the pre-match laser and pyrotechnics were a statement for the occasion and the team’s performance matched it with their six-man high