PARIS, April 8 (Reuters) - Holders Paris St Germain were a cut above Liverpool as goals by Desire Doue and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia spurred them to an easy 2-0 home win in their Champions League quarter-final first leg on Wednesday.
Doue and Kvaratskhelia struck either side of halftime to give Luis Enrique’s side a solid advantage ahead of next week’s return at Anfield, where PSG booked their place in the last eight last season.
Doue opened the scoring with a deflected effort before Kvaratskhelia doubled the lead with a superb solo run and finish, but PSG wasted a handful of chances that would have further strengthened their push for the semi-finals.
Liverpool, thrashed 4-0 by Manchester City in the FA Cup quarter-finals at the weekend, set up cautiously with three centre backs and Mohamed Salah on the bench, but struggled to contain a PSG side that mixed patient possession with bursts of attacking intensity.
Arne Slot opted for a back three with wings but the defence held for only 11 minutes at the Parc des Princes.
Doue picked up the ball on the left side of the box and his curled shot towards the opposite top corner took a slight deflection off Ryan Gravenberch and went out of Giorgi Mamardashvili’s reach.
Liverpool were hanging on for dear life, picking up two yellow cards in three minutes, and barely threatened.
ZERO SHOTS ON TARGET FOR LIVERPOOL
As the visitors’ defence scrambled 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’s deficit to a minimum.
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.
Liverpool, who did not manage a single shot before the break, were fortunate to be only one goal behind.
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 effort over the bar from inside the area.
That was as close as the visitors got, failing to manage a single shot on target.
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.
One of them came in the 65th minute when Joao Neves played in a racing Kvaratskhelia and the Georgian danced his way through the area, rounded Mamardashvili and slotted the ball home.
Dembele's angled shot crashed onto the post and Nuno Mendes fluffed a golden chance in the final minutes as Liverpool preserved a slim hope of overturning the deficit next Tuesday.
(Reporting by Julien Pretot, editing by Pritha Sarkar and Andrew Cawthorne)
