Midfielder says the squad must now focus “completely” on securing a top-five finish in the league
Florian Wirtz has said Liverpool “owe” their supporters a return to the Champions League next season after a poor campaign so far ended with a disappointing quarter-final exit.
Liverpool were eliminated by Paris Saint-Germain following a 2-0 defeat at Anfield that completed a 4-0 aggregate loss. Wirtz said the team must now shift its full focus to the league, with Premier League qualification the priority.
Arne Slot’s side are currently fifth in the league, with the top five set to qualify for next season’s Champions League.
“The focus goes completely to the end of the season for the league,” Wirtz said. “We have to play [in the] Champions League next season, we owe this to the club and to the fans. We will give our best, like we did today, and hopefully we can make minimum the top five.”
Liverpool pushed to overturn their first-leg deficit but were unable to find a breakthrough. A key block from Marquinhos denied Virgil van Dijk, while a potential penalty was overturned after a VAR review.
“I think the whole stadium was on fire and the fans, big compliments to them,” Wirtz said. “We tried everything from the first minute, but we needed that one goal to get the turnaround started. We were just missing the goal. That’s football – when you don’t score goals, you don’t win games.”
Despite creating more chances after the break, Liverpool were caught late on, with Ousmane Dembele scoring twice to secure PSG’s progression.
“In the first half it was a bit more difficult to create chances and then in the second half we got some good chances, but in the end there was the little thing that missed in the end to score the goal,” Wirtz said. “It’s frustrating but we have to take it and move on.”
