Arne Slot insists the future is bright for Liverpool after Champions League exit
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SportFootballLiverpool FCArne Slot was remaining positive after Liverpool went down fighting in their Champions League quarter-final second-leg defeat to Paris Saint GermainArne Slot believes the future remains bright at Liverpool after their 17th defeat of the campaign saw them exit the Champions League to Paris Saint-Germain.Ousmane Dembele scored a second-half brace to condemn the Reds to a 4-0 aggregate defeat at the quarter-final stage and the Reds now have just the Premier League to focus on as they look to secure a top-five finish - starting with Sunday's Merseyside at derby Everton.Slot says there is plenty to be optimistic about long-term at Anfield and was pleased with how his side matched the holders for long periods while attempting to fight back from the 2-0 loss in Paris last week."Of course we are very disappointed because I think there were parts of the second half where you could feel: ‘If we could just score now, this could become a very special night'," the Liverpool head coach said.FOLLOW OUR LIVERPOOL FC FACEBOOK PAGE! All the latest news and analysis from Anfield on the Liverpool Echo's dedicated LFC Facebook page"But the future looks very bright for this team, for this club.
We have showed we can compete with the champions of Europe in our stadium."To be the dominant team, not many teams can be dominant against PSG and create as many chances as we did. Creating chances is one thing, scoring is a second."Referee Maurizio Mariani overturned a penalty awarded to the Reds after Alexis Mac Allister was brought down by Willian Pacho when the score was 0-0.But Slot refused to criticise the call, adding: "I think probably last week we had too much luck and we ran out of luck today."So last week there were two incidents where we might have been a bit lucky [not to concede a penalty], although the first one it was overturned and there was no contact.
The second one could have been but if you don't give it as a referee you shouldn't overturn it."And today, in my opinion - and we have conceded a few penalties this season and I could name them all for you, Brentford and Leeds away - but if a penalty is given, usually VAR tells you I see contact then I should support the on-field decision."But I wasn’t surprised that this went against us but that wasn’t the story of the game. This has happened to us multiple times this season."Choose Liverpool Echo as a 'Preferred Source' on Google News for quick access to the news you value.Liverpool FCUEFA Champions League