That's a smash and grab
Liverpool should've lost to PSG. Instead, they smashed and grabbed.
Smash and grab (noun)
Smash·and·grab
The act of being thoroughly outplayed over the course of a full 90-minute soccer match but winning 1-0 due to a last-minute goal
This week’s Champions League slate–the first legs of the Round of 16 knockout round–gave fans all over Europe something to take home. The biggest win in Arsenal’s European history, another Barcelona red card (with Raphinha saving their asses this time around), three golazos in the Madrid derby, and an unfortunate rout between the two top German clubs.
But the best, most intriguing match of the week was none other than PSG playing host to Liverpool. Liverpool have arguably been the best team in Europe the whole season, finishing first in the CL group stages and currently first in the Premier League by 13 points. A Carabao Cup final awaits them in the coming weeks. Mohamed Salah has looked the best player in the world–30 goals and 22 assists in 40 total appearances–while Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konaté, Ryan Gravenberch, and Alexis Mac Allister have all had notable, title-winning kinds of seasons. PSG on the other hand…
Many have found it difficult to understand and predict this PSG squad this season. The loss of Kylian Mbappé to Real Madrid last summer opened up every possibility to Qatar Sports Investments, no strangers to every possibility being available to them. Manager Luis Enrique restructured the attack around the talents of the mercurial, oft-injured Ousmane Dembélé and the rising speedster Bradley Barcola (great name, no notes). PSG looked more or less like one of the top 6-8 clubs in the world, but it was hard to picture the Parisiens going far in CL. If a bunch of teams with Mbappé leading the line had squandered great opportunities–just look at last year against the mediocre Borussia Dortmund in the semifinals–it was easy to say the club would be even less reliable outside the comfy confines of French league play.
Then the club went and bought Khvicha Kvaratskhelia to add to its now truly absurd attacking unit. Kvaratskhelia was having a down year at Napoli, with Antonio Conte seemingly despising him, but only the shortest of memories forgot his performances in Napoli’s Serie A winning season a year and a half ago. The guy is a stud, and his introduction to the lineup portended a fire-breathing offense that not even the best defenses could hope to contain. Oh, and Dembélé began challenging Salah’s hold on Best Player in the World once the calendar hit 2025: 18 goals and one assist in 14 matches. Liverpool would be this lineup’s first true test.
And, uhh, they passed! Sacré bleu, what a performance by PSG, particularly in the first half. Kvaratskhelia started alongside Barcola and Dembélé but none of them were the obviously designated striker, left winger, or right winger. Constantly interchanging in attack and the immediate counterpress, Liverpool looked as bad as they have all season and were extremely fortunate to find the score 0-0 after 45 minutes. 68% possession for PSG, along with 1.39 expected goals, 12 total shots (five on target), three big chances, and that’s not even including Kvaratskhelia’s goal chalked off for offsides, a beautiful looping goal erased to time because of a heel being just too far forward.
On the other side of the pitch, Liverpool appeared to be playing a bend but don’t break style, not the expected game plan for a club dominating England. Salah put in his worst performance of the season as the only out ball–yes, I know Luis Diaz technically did the same on the other side but yikes–and the midfield were completely outclassed. PSG had 291 accurate passes to Liverpool’s 107, and a majority of the first half was played in Liverpool’s final third. Still, both teams headed into the locker room tied at zero, with everything left to play for.
In the second half, Liverpool performed slightly better, at least cutting down the accuracy of PSG’s shots (just 0.39 xG accrued on 15 shots). The Parisiens seemed knackered in the final stages of the match after all that pressing and not scoring. This is the point in the match where a lot of commentators will say that both clubs are fine with the result and on to next week. Just as that was happening, Liverpool scored on a counter, the odd man out Darwin Nunez playing in the other odd man out Harvey Elliot for a tidy finish through the outstretched arm of Gianluigi Donnarumma. 1-0 to Liverpool, now headed back to Liverpool.
This is what we call a smash and grab, or as the French say: le smash and grab. There are plenty of ingredients to choose from for a proper smash and grab, and any combination of them will do to get the right flavor. Let’s key in on the characteristics for this match:
Playing away from home
Even the so-called best teams in the world can face difficulties with life on the road. Travel, hotels, different locker rooms, opposing fans, hearing French being spoken. It takes a toll, even if nobody who doesn’t earn a million dollars wants to hear about it. Paris isn’t especially known for having crazy difficult fans, but it’s still a big stadium with a lot of angry French people shouting.
Generally, teams are going to play more defensively and reactively away from home, which leads us to…
A defensive / reactive playstyle
Arne Slot determined the most optimal way for his squad to get a result against PSG was to bunker down, not seek out possession, and almost entirely reduce their attack to counterattacking. This is why the possession and passing numbers are what they are, further giving credence to what your eyes see: PSG dominating every aspect of the ball while Liverpool hope for that one pass and shot that unlocks the match. Liverpool had two shots the entire match, happening to score on one of them. That is not a defensive or reactive playstyle working, that is the sport of soccer being vindictive as hell.
The result ultimately proved Slot correct, even if everything else about the match told a different story, which leads us to…
A goalkeeper standing on his fucking head
Alisson deservedly won Man of the Match and CL Player of the Week, calling it “the performance of [his] life.” Alisson was already a top-2 keeper in the world, and he never let in a goal by what I now think is the best attack in world football. Nine total saves, along with everything else he does on the pitch.
A smash and grab is rarely complete without a career-best performance by someone in the defense. Van Dijk and Konaté were much better in the second half, but nothing compares to a goalkeeper going all Gandalf on their ass.
That’s the recipe, or at least the version we got on Wednesday in Paris. It’s ironic, then, that the last time Liverpool played in Paris–ok, Saint Denis, but let me have it–the Reds were on the receiving end of a smash and grab, courtesy of one Vinicius Junior goal and one of the best keeper performances you’ll ever see in Thibaut Courtois. How the turns tabled.
What remains to be seen is why Liverpool are playing like this. Liverpool had a similar game against Manchester City recently, but City weren't very good and lost 2-0. The season is long and arduous and finding rest for the midfield and attack is important. But Liverpool should not have won this match, and it would be tempting fate to trot out the same ideas next week at home.
I fully expect PSG to do the same thing. It’s not a side built to withstand pressure and possession on the opposite end. The Parisiens should go full tilt and, as soccer is wont to do, maybe they’ll get the goals they didn’t get this week and then some. Soccer is fickle, and both managers will have to resist narratives based off of the scoreline alone. The loser should try nothing else and the winner really should try something else.