Paris Saint-Germain knocked Liverpool out of the Champions League for the second consecutive season at Anfield on Tuesday evening. Unsurprisingly, Ousmane Dembele proved decisive once again. Just over a year after scoring the only goal of the second leg of the two teams' last-16 tie, which eventually led to PSG progressing on penalties, the winger returned to Merseyside to score twice in a 2-0 win that earned the defending champions a comprehensive 4-0 win on aggregate.
The France international's first goal on the night was both brilliant and crucial, with Dembele bending the ball into the bottom left corner of Giorgio Mamardashvili's net at a time when Liverpool were piling the pressure on PSG. His sweet 72nd-minute strike, thus, broke the home side's resistance, and he added another goal for good measure shortly before the full-time whistle after a quick counter-attack from the visitors.
Dembele's double wasn't the only major talking point of the second leg, though. The game sparked plenty of other debate - not least around Arne Slot's shocking team selection. Below, GOAL runs through all of the big winners and losers from another chaotic clash in front of the Kop between Liverpool and PSG...
WINNER: Dembele's Ballon d'Or defence
Slot didn't get a lot right on the night but when he said that "Dembele's goal showed why he won the Ballon d'Or last season", the Liverpool boss was spot on. It was a moment of pure quality from the winger-turned-forward, who had actually been relatively ineffective up until that point in the quarter-final tie. Indeed, PSG's profligacy in Paris was as much down to Dembele as anyone else, and he also blazed a glorious opportunity over the bar during the first half of the second leg.
However, the crucial breakthrough was all about Dembele, who finished off a move that he had started with a neat exchange with Khvicha Kvaratskhelia inside his own half. Having rediscovered his goalscoring touch, it thus didn't come as anything remotely resembling a surprise to see him score again right at the death.
Dembele may not have yet hit the heights of 2025 so far this year but, after another decisive display at Anfield and with PSG also finding their best form again at precisely the right time, he's once again perfectly placed to launch a Ballon d'Or bid - particularly with France one of the favourites to win this summer's World Cup.
LOSER: Ekitike's World Cup dream
Unfortunately for France, it now seems that there is a very real chance that Hugo Ekitike won't be joining Dembele on the national team's upcoming flight to North America. The Liverpool forward had forced his way into Didier Deschamps' line-up with some sensational performances this season but, just over half an hour into this game, Ekitike collapsed to the floor as he tried to get on the end of a forward pass.
There had been nobody near him at the time - which is never a good sign, as it rules out the cause of the fall being nothing more than a knock caused by a collision with an opponent - and, as he lay in agony on the pitch, Ekitike could be seen motioning to the Liverpool physio that something had snapped.
Slot wisely refused to be drawn on whether it was the striker's Achilles but did admit that the initial prognosis "looked really bad" and that a devastated Ekitike had already gone home.
Ibrahima Konate, meanwhile, said he was already praying for his team-mate at both club and international level to make a full recovery - and that's a sentiment undoubtedly shared by every true football fan, because it would be awful to see such a talented young man miss out on what would be his first World Cup.
WINNER: Magnificent Marquinhos
Dembele may have scored the goals that won the game but Marquinhos was undoubtedly the match-winner.
Willian Pacho had an excellent outing alongside the Brazilian, winning duel after duel, both Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes defended resolutely all evening, while the much-maligned Matvey Safonov made such crucial saves.
However, it was Marquinhos who held together a defence that was seriously creaking in the second half - and did so after producing arguably the most important moment of the evening.
In the 30th minute, Safanov made a close-range reaction stop from Milos Kerkez that saw the ball drop for Virgil van Dijk in the penalty area. The Dutchman looked certain to score but Marquinhos seemed to appear out of nowhere to produce the most miraculous of blocks to deny Van Dijk.
It was a stunning intervention from the skipper and he rightly celebrated his challenge like a goal. Had Liverpool scored then, it would have changed the entire complexion of the game - and indeed the tie.
Luis Enrique's wingers and midfielders rightly get a lot of praise but Marquinhos is a magnificent defender and PSG, as a club, simply wouldn't be where they are today without their inspirational captain.
LOSER: The Premier League vs PSG
The Premier League loves to tout itself as the most challenging competition in club football - but playing against England's elite nearly always seems to bring the best out of Paris Saint-Germain.
Luis Enrique's men have played 13 games against EPL teams since January of last year - and won 10 of those encounters, including their last four in a row.
Perhaps even more impressively, their only defeats during that period, at home to Liverpool and away to Aston Villa, didn't stop them from going through to the next round of the Champions League. In fact, they've now won five consecutive knockout stage ties against Premier League opposition.
The naysayers will obviously point to the fact that PSG have little by the way of real competition in France - and even when they do, domestic matches are conveniently moved to help them fully focus on tougher European tests.
However, PSG have become such a problem for Premier League teams that Arsenal will probably be hoping that they don't end up meeting them in this year's final!
WINNER: Xabi Alonso advocates
Xabi Alonso was the popular choice to take over at Anfield after Jurgen Klopp announced his decision to step down at the end of the 2023-24 season. However, the beloved ex-Liverpool midfielder elected to lead Bayer Leverkusen into the Champions League after his undefeated double in Germany before returning to another of his former clubs, Real Madrid, last summer.
Surprisingly (and yet also arguably unsurprisingly given the way in which Los Blancos are run), Alonso was sacked by Florentino Perez just six months into an ambitious new project because he refused to cater to the whims of spoilt superstars such as Vinicius Junior. Ever since then, there has been a growing clamour among Liverpool fans to replace struggling Slot with the still-adored Alonso.
Those calls are only going to intensify after Tuesday night because it was absolutely impossible not to look at the game and not think that Alonso could have got more out of the home side's players - and former Leverkusen duo Jeremie Frimpong and Florian Wirtz in particular.
LOSER: Slot's survival hopes
Plenty of former Liverpool players turned pundits are reluctant to call for Slot's dismissal, arguing that his position will only become untenable if the Reds fail to qualify for next season's Champions League. However, we're already way past that point.
In reality, Liverpool should have made a change by now - if not in November after a historically bad run of results, then during the international break on the back of the embarrassing Premier League loss at Brighton.
The board's inaction has ended up costing Liverpool what chance they had of winning some silverware this season, as they've since suffered 4-0 losses in the quarter-finals of both the FA Cup and the Champions League, to Manchester City and PSG, respectively. It's simply not good enough - just like Slot's team selections for both legs against PSG.
In Paris, he betrayed his principles - and the club - with a disgracefully negative approach summed up by the most ill-advised switch to a back five in football history. At Anfield, he effectively wasted the entire first half with his equally ludicrous decision to start Alexander Isak (which was grossly unfair on the half-fit forward), while once again leaving both Mohamed Salah and Rio Ngumoha on the bench.
There can be no way back for Slot now. He is clearly not the right man to get the best out of this squad and fifth place is not an acceptable return on last summer's unprecedented investment in a title-winning team.
Speaking after the game, Slot once again tried to attribute some blame for his squad's shortcomings to the club's recruitment strategy but the buck stops with the manager and the bottom line is that the Reds have got worse since they last got knocked out of the Champions League - not better.
For that reason alone, Tuesday should be his last European night at Anfield as Liverpool coach. This sorry show has been allowed to go on for far too long and everyone knows it, whether they want to admit it or not.