Paris Saint-Germain inflicted Liverpool’s third straight Champions League away defeat.

The Reds found themselves on the back foot early on and fell behind when Juan Bernat latched on to Virgil Van Dijk’s poor clearance to shoot past Alisson.

Neymar doubled the lead midway through the first half when he combined with Kylian Mbappe to fire home a cross after Alisson had denied Edinson Cavani.

James Milner gave Jurgen Klopp’s side faint hopes of a comeback when he tucked home a penalty on the stroke of half time following a foul on Sadio Mane.

Here were the key talking points from the Parc des Princes:

Another Euro cliffhanger awaits

 

Defeat in the French capital was disappointing and continued Liverpool’s poor away form in the Champions League, but it was not the end of the road.

Napoli’s visit to Anfield in Group C’s final game is quite literally a must-win game. Two goals without reply or a one-nil win will takes the Reds into the knockout stages.

That is something this side is more than capable of doing. Better sides than Carlo Ancelotti’s have visited Merseyside and left with their tails between their legs.

If victory is to be secured, however, Jurgen Klopp must find a way to help his team find their mojo back. Something is missing from this team at present.

The verve they showed last year is sorely missing. It may take another famous European night to ensure this run is not halted prematurely.

Reds given a taste of their own medicine

 

Liverpool are well accustomed to tearing teams apart.

It’s how they’ve operated under Klopp for some time now. What they are not accustomed to is teams turning the tables on them.

That is exactly what PSG did here; essentially inflicting on Liverpool what their visitors had done during September’s five-goal thriller between the sides.

They hit Liverpool on the counter with clinical precision. Quite frankly, last season’s finalists could not cope at times.

It showed that this Liverpool side remains vulnerable to opponents who are happy to rise to the challenge of stopping them.

Although they have not conceded goals as frequently as they used to, a team that is brave enough to play this way can still get at them.

This was a bitter taste of their own medicine and no doubt PSG’s tactics will serve as a blueprint for sides with ambitions of repeating their feat.

Fortunately, not many have the quality of Neymar and Kylian Mbappe up front.

Back to the drawing board for defence

 

Joe Gomez’s rise has been stunning to watch this season, with many impressed by the youngster’s development.

They have been similarly impressed by his burgeoning relationship with Virgil van Dijk.

There are few who deny they are Liverpool’s best centre-back pairing these days. It is, therefore, baffling why Jurgen Klopp continues to chop and change his defence to incorporate Dejan Lovren.

The Croatian may feel he is among the best in the world but he is the third choice at Anfield.

At the Parc des Princes, he looked lost, failing to react for the first goal and being caught out of position for the second.

Gomez is wasted at right back and Liverpool’s defence suffers when he isn’t alongside Van Dijk.

Klopp may have to adopt a more ruthless approach to continue getting the best from his defence.

Verratti exposes gulf in standards

 

£95 million was spent improving Liverpool’s midfield in the summer, yet the same trio that started last season’s Champions League final also did in this game.

As was the case in Kiev, they were given a masterclass by a midfield above their pay grade. As performances go, this was top-class from Marco Verratti.

The Italy international may have been lucky to remain on the field after a high and dangerous challenge on Joe Gomez but he was nonetheless quality.

James Milner, Jordan Henderson and Gini Wijnaldum simply failed to deal with him for much of the game. Most of what PSG did well originated from Verratti.

His performance highlighted a continued problem for the Reds. While their midfield is stacked with talent it still lacks that player who can get the ball down and control a game.

Fabinho or Naby Keita may be the answer to that issue; it’s time they were given serious runs in the first team to find out.