"Salah just lost his Ballon d'Or", "Better team won" - Social media reacts as Liverpool get knocked out of UCL after penalty shootout loss to PSG

Liverpool's hopes of winning a treble of trophies this season came to an end at Anfield on Tuesday (March 11) as they were eliminated from the Champions League by Paris Saint-Germain (PSG). Fans online reacted after the Reds lost 4-1 on penalties in the second leg of the Round-of-16 tie.

Having secured a narrow 1-0 win in Paris in the first leg on March 5, Arne Slot’s men only had the job of holding on to their slender advantage to book their spot in the quarterfinals. As opposed to the first leg at Parc des Princes, Liverpool showed more attacking intent in the opening 10 minutes at Anfield.

While the Reds dominated proceedings early on, they saw their aggregate lead wiped out when PSG scored against the run of play in the 12th minute, courtesy of Ousmane Dembele. The Frenchman capitalized on a defensive error by Ibrahima Konate to level the tie.

Arne Slot's men continued to crank up the pressure in the second half but Paris Saint-Germain goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma’s brilliance in between the sticks prevented the hosts from finding the back of the net. The scoreline remaining unchanged after the additional 30 minutes meant a penalty shootout would be the tiebreaker.

Donnarumma came up clutch for the PSG in the shootout as he saved spot-kicks from Curtis Jones and Darwin Nunez to send his side through to the quarterfinals at the expense of Liverpool.

Mohamed Salah, who has been flying high in a rampant Liverpool side this season, failed to make a mark in the game. The Egyptian was kept under wraps by Nuno Mendes in the first leg, and the return leg at Anfield was no different.

Salah’s performance and Liverpool’s exit from the Champions League triggered a series of reactions online.

An X user quipped:

''Salah just lost his ballon d'or 😂.''

Another tweeted:

''Salah ain’t winning Ballon d'Or now.''

''The better team won. Liverpool can't complain,'' @Chelsea4everA wrote.

''PSG deserved their qualification. Congratulations to them,'' @Tahseen10577313 added.

''They wrote PSG off 🤣. We told them they got lucky last week,'' @KryptInfluencer quipped.

''PSG delivered a stunning performance at Anfield! They deserved to go through,'' @damendrizzi chimed in.

''We ran out of luck'' – Liverpool boss Arne Slot on defeat to PSG

Arne Slot heaped praise on his team's performance despite exiting the Champions League. The Dutch manager described the game as the best game of football he has been involved in and further opined that his side ran out of luck.

Slot told Amazon Prime (via BBC):

"It was the best game of football I have ever been involved in. It was an incredible performance, especially if you compare it with last week. Maybe we ran out of luck because the margins were so small.''

"We played the perfect game, except for scoring a goal. It was similar to Paris last week, when they played the perfect game and didn't score. And then in extra time, they were maybe a little bit better," he added.

Liverpool will next be in action against Newcastle in the Carabao Cup final on Sunday (March 16).