{"id":31184,"date":"2026-04-09T09:46:03","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T07:46:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=31184"},"modified":"2026-04-09T09:46:03","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T07:46:03","slug":"red-hot-psg-beat-liverpool-2-0-in-quarter-final-first-leg","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/red-hot-psg-beat-liverpool-2-0-in-quarter-final-first-leg\/","title":{"rendered":"Red-hot PSG beat Liverpool 2-0 in quarter-final first leg"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Holders Paris St \u200bGermain were a cut above Liverpool as goals by Desire Doue and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia spurred them to \u200can easy 2-0 home win in their Champions League quarter-final first leg on Wednesday.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Doue and Kvaratskhelia struck either side of halftime to give Luis Enrique\u2019s side a solid advantage ahead of next week\u2019s return at Anfield, where PSG booked their place in the last \u200beight last season.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Doue opened the scoring with a deflected effort before Kvaratskhelia doubled the lead with a superb \u200bsolo run and finish, but PSG wasted a handful of chances that would have further \u2060strengthened their push for the semi-finals.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Liverpool, thrashed 4-0 by Manchester City in the FA Cup quarter-finals at the weekend, \u200bset up cautiously with three centre-backs and Mohamed Salah on the bench, but struggled to contain a PSG side \u200bthat mixed patient possession with bursts of attacking intensity.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Arne Slot opted for a back three with wings, but the defence held for only 11 minutes at the Parc des Princes.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Doue picked up the ball on the left side of the box, and his curled shot \u200btowards the opposite top corner took a slight deflection off Ryan Gravenberch and went out of Giorgi Mamardashvili\u2019s reach.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Liverpool \u200bwere hanging on for dear life, picking up two yellow cards in three minutes, and barely threatened.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>As the \u2060visitors\u2019 defence scrambled for a clearance, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia fired a half-volley that forced Mamardashvili to fully stretch. The keeper then denied Doue from point-blank range, preserving Liverpool\u2019s deficit to a minimum.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Next, Ousmane Dembele missed a golden opportunity to double the advantage when he shot straight at the keeper at the end of a sharp transition.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Liverpool, who did not manage a \u200bsingle shot before the break, \u200bwere fortunate to be only \u2060one goal behind.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Hugo Ekitike was the first to have a go but shot wide four minutes into the second half, shortly before Dembele missed the target again, skying his \u200beffort over the bar from inside the area.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>That was as close as the visitors \u200bgot, failing to \u2060manage a single shot on target.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Liverpool did, however, look bolder after the interval, but limited compared to PSG, who played keep-ball and tormented them with brutal changes of pace.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>One of them came in the 65th minute when Joao Neves played in \u2060a racing \u200bKvaratskhelia, and the Georgian danced his way through the area, rounded Mamardashvili \u200band slotted the ball home.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Dembele\u2019s angled shot crashed onto the post, and Nuno Mendes fluffed a golden chance in the final minutes as Liverpool \u200bpreserved a slim hope of overturning the deficit next Tuesday.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":16119,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-31184","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Liverpool, thrashed 4-0 by Manchester City in the FA Cup quarter-finals at the weekend","published_date":"","news_description":"Liverpool, thrashed 4-0 by Manchester City in the FA Cup quarter-finals at the weekend","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31185,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31184\/revisions\/31185"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=31184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}