The Liverpool frenzy that may have altered their Champions League fate – as revenge mission against PSG awaits

There may not be too many ways in which this season is better than last for Liverpool but Arne Slot can at least point to a significant one. Liverpool have gone further in the Champions League , and this was progress in more ways than one. A quarter-final was booked in emphatic and entertaining fashion.

The boos that greeted the final whistle against Tottenham on Sunday were replaced by cheers, the lethargy with which Liverpool have played too often giving way to an energy and intensity. This was frenzied and fast, players and crowd feeding off each other. For Slot, it was a response when the scrutiny upon him had heightened.

The Dutchman switched tactics, to something of a 4-4-2, and the team changed tack. This was much better. This was one of his finest Anfield nights of the campaign.

If it was like the Liverpool of old, what could have shaped up as further evidence of Mohamed Salah ’s decline instead became a cathartic evening for him. His was a throwback performance. At half-time, when Liverpool’s dominance was not reflected by a one-goal lead, there was the possibility Salah’s missed penalty would cost them.