Slot relief after Liverpool steal 1-0 win after PSG dominate champions league first leg
05/03/2025
Parc des Princes
05/03/2025
Parc des Princes
Category
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SportsTranscript
00:00Jürgen, you said before the game you'd have to suffer at times,
00:07how do you sum everything up when your goalkeeper was outstanding
00:10and after his saves, Javier then produces a match-winning moment
00:13moments after you sent him on?
00:15Yeah, I think when we would have had a draw over here
00:18we would have been already the lucky ones, and that is clear for everyone.
00:23I think they were the much better team today,
00:26especially in the first half, they had a lot of open chances,
00:30three or four big, big chances.
00:34In the second half they were still the better team,
00:37still had a lot of shots on target, but they were mainly from outside the box.
00:41I knew before the game, and I saw it today again,
00:45how much quality this team has and these individual players have.
00:50So all these shots from outside the box are with a certain speed
00:54that you only see with the top players.
00:56We have them as well, but you see them as well.
00:59That's why Alisson still had to make a lot of big saves.
01:03We were lucky with the first half that the goal was fractionally offside.
01:08I was very happy that in difficult circumstances over here
01:12the referee wasn't impressed, that's not always, in away games, the situation.
01:18And, yeah, in the end we were already in the game three, four, five times,
01:24I felt like we can hurt them in transition, but we didn't.
01:28We waited until the last moment and then we hurt them.
01:31What a moment that was for Harvey coming on, it was like a game-time at times.
01:38Yeah, a big moment for him.
01:40I can understand that he's sometimes frustrated about the playing time he gets,
01:44because he's a good player, we showed at Liverpool already that he's a good player,
01:47but he's in competition with players that hardly take off.
01:51Dominic Sobreslai is always the one that just keeps on going,
01:54also scores goals, but he's so important for us with all the running he does.
01:59And, yeah, Mo Salah is quite clear for everyone as well.
02:03He has to do it with limited playing time, but he just keeps on going.
02:06I have to give him big compliments for that,
02:08also my staff, because they keep working with him
02:11and every time come up with great exercises so he stays fit.
02:16But it wasn't only Harvey, it was also the one that assisted, Darwin Nunez,
02:20who came from a difficult two games, but was absolutely there again tonight,
02:26because from the moment he came in we were more of a threat than before.
02:31I appreciate it will be different now in the field with the atmosphere,
02:34but what does tonight tell you about the task you still have ahead of you?
02:38What it tells me is that we are, of course, 1-0 win if you have seen the game,
02:43it's a very good result for us, but we also felt the quality of Partizan.
02:49I knew it before, they won ten times in a row, scored goal after goal after goal,
02:54incredible pace with the wingers.
02:56Every underlying stat shows you that they are the best team in the Champions League.
03:02We were the league table, won it, but they were, in the underlying stats, the best team.
03:07I wasn't surprised that they were so good.
03:10So we're definitely going to need our fans in a week's time.
03:14Jürgen, is it fair to say it was the toughest position you've had this season?
03:21And if yes, is it because of his performance,
03:26or is it also due to the fact that your team, let's put it mildly, were under par tonight?
03:31That they were?
03:33Under par.
03:34No, we were not under par.
03:36It's pure the quality of Elysie and Jermain and the way they've played this whole season.
03:44I can say it one more time, all the underlying stats show you
03:48that they were the best team in Europe until now, except for the league table.
03:53But they've had Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid and Man City,
03:59and still have the best underlying stats.
04:02And they showed today, and I already knew it, but the players saw it today as well,
04:07and our fans and the whole of England,
04:10that Luiz Enrique made an incredible team here after three windows.
04:15So much pace, so much work rate, so much quality in the midfield, how they handled the ball.
04:21It was an unbelievable challenge for us to get away with a result,
04:27and we know it's going to be a hard one in a week.
04:33Good evening, coach, we're in French now.
04:38We've seen you since the very beginning of the match,
04:43your goalkeeper especially running down the clock.
04:47Do you think your goal was actually to go home with a draw?
04:54I think it's clear you are not used to...
04:59Let me say it in other words, I've played games this season
05:04where goalkeepers took much, much more time before they took a goal kick than we did tonight.
05:11Or with throw-ins, sometimes it takes a minute, but that is not for you to know,
05:18but for me to know, we've played many of these games.
05:22I didn't feel we were wasting time today, we just tried to play the game.
05:27But, yeah, it was clear that as the game passed by,
05:33a draw was the best possible result for us, but in the end we were lucky to even get the win.
05:38But it didn't feel to me as if we were time-delaying that much.
05:52Arjen, PSG were particularly brilliant for the first half-hour or so,
05:56but then it felt like you managed to shore them up.
05:59What were you thinking at that moment and was there anything specific you did?
06:03Yeah, we changed a bit the way we pressed in the second half compared to the first half.
06:08And I also agree with you that in the first half they had three or four open chances,
06:13so one-on-ones and a cut-back cross that just went over the bar.
06:18And the moment he went one-on-one and the ball came back,
06:21and two or three chances in a row.
06:23So in the first half it was almost a miracle that it was 0-0.
06:27The second half it was more due to their quality that they could create chances,
06:31because all of their shots were outside the box.
06:34But these players, I just said it already, and our players have the same,
06:38if they get shots from 18 yards or 20 yards, it's still half a chance because they can hit it so hard.
06:44And that's why I think you saw two teams that have dominated their league,
06:49they're the French and us are England,
06:52playing against each other with so much quality involved in the game.
06:56But Paris Saint-Germain was by far the better team in ball possession than us.
07:03Hi, Jordan. Trent has obviously had a lot of scrutiny in his season,
07:08he always does, but tonight you know he's up against some really top players,
07:13you handled it really well, what did you make of it?
07:16Yes, I agree with you, but I see the same thing during the season many more times.
07:21There have been games, I think City away was one of them,
07:24where he was outplayed a few times,
07:26but we didn't concede that many big chances against City,
07:29so sometimes stats are not telling you the truth.
07:32If he goes past someone in the width of the pitch,
07:35it doesn't tell you that he's outplayed.
07:38But the stats that do matter, I just said already a few times,
07:43are clear that Paris Saint-Germain is, this season,
07:46incredible in Europe and in their league.
07:48But Trent, I think in the first half one or two times he had some difficulties,
07:53but in general he defended really well, especially in the second half,
07:56so I agree with you, yes.
07:58We'll take three more questions.
08:07Good evening, coach.
08:13This type of match, details are very important in this type of match,
08:18there are two teams, there's one referee,
08:21who decided sometimes it was really tough for the referee to make a couple of decisions.
08:27Do you have an opinion in regards to the refereeing tonight?
08:34The big difference is between France and the Netherlands and England,
08:38is that you guys ask me questions about time delay and about referee decisions,
08:42where in England I have to talk about this myself,
08:44and I don't get these questions if we are disadvantaged,
08:48is that the word to say?
08:50A lot.
08:51Then nobody asks me about it.
08:54I just said that it's not easy for a referee,
08:57if you are a referee in a game like this,
09:01where the fans are so there for the home team.
09:05Apart from that one moment where you could argue if it's a red, yes or no,
09:11with Ibu and Barcola, I didn't feel he was in favour of us or in favour of them,
09:17it was just a top referee that should be in a game like this.
09:23And I think if the referee would have blown his whistle,
09:28the VAR would not have overturned it,
09:30and now it was also clear for me that he should not have overturned it
09:33because it wasn't clearly wrong.
09:35And it is a big decision, that's true.
09:38No, I'm not going to say what I want to say.
09:41Let's keep it like this.
09:53According to you, who is the most confident player for you tonight,
09:59you know, for the next match coming up against Paris?
10:05Who is the most confident player?
10:11Yeah, if you look at the results,
10:14we come away with a lot of confidence,
10:18but if you look at the results, we come away really positive.
10:24If you look at the performance, they are two different things.
10:27I think Paris Saint-Germain can take a lot of positives
10:31towards the game we're going to play in a week,
10:35but I can tell you that they're not only going to play against us,
10:40they're also going to play against our fans.
10:44We really need them, not only next Tuesday,
10:49we need our fans on Saturday against Southampton as well.
10:53Like you might know, we don't have a winter break in England,
10:57so we just keep on playing for months already,
11:00and these players are definitely going to need the help of our fans
11:04to show up two times as they did in the last few months.