Harvey Elliott’s four-minute cameo proved to make all of the distinction final week when Liverpool accomplished a surprising smash and seize raid of their Champions League last-16 first leg conflict in opposition to Paris Saint-Germain.
The 21-year-old changed Mohamed Salah for the ultimate levels of a conflict which the hosts had dominated within the Parcs des Princes and netted together with his first contact of the ball to present Arne Slot’s aspect a slender first-leg benefit forward of Tuesday evening’s return leg at Anfield.
The objective, which got here through a lightning pace breakaway after he was picked out by Darwin Nunez got here throughout a recreation which noticed PSG pepper 27 pictures on the Liverpool objective with goalkeeper Alisson making 9 saves.
Liverpool star Harvey Elliott opens up on his Paris Saint-Germain winner
Elliott and Arne Slot rejoice after the win in Paris (Picture credit score: Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC through Getty Photos)
Elliott’s outstanding winner was his fourth objective of the season and third within the Champions League this time period, and means Liverpool will begin the second leg as favourites to progress to the quarter-finals, the place both Aston Villa or Membership Brugge await the winners.
And in line with Elliott, Liverpool have video video games to thank for the strike, as the previous Fulham man’s time spent enjoying FIFA (latterly EA Sports activities FC ) helped tee him up when he entered the motion rather than Salah.
Elliott was alerted to Nuno Mendes’ key trait by enjoying FIFA (Picture credit score: Getty Photos)
“Clearly watching Nuno Mendes in opposition to Mo, he had a extremely, actually good recreation and watching him from earlier than and enjoying together with his card on FIFA you already know his tempo is ridiculous,” Elliott admitted to Ben Foster for Amazon Prime Video .
“So, I assumed, I’m not going to outdo him for tempo right here so I used to be simply seeing how the second would go. He went like this [turned] and noticed me, after which he turned his again so he was dealing with straight ahead.
“And I assumed, proper if there’s ever a time I want to make use of no matter pace I’ve in me, it’s now!”
Elliott – who was voted at No.9 in FourFourTwo’s most fun youngsters on this planet in 2023 – once more made an affect after coming off the bench on Saturday, when he was launched by Slot at half-time with Liverpool trailing 1-0 to bottom-dwellers Southampton . The England U21 worldwide gave the Reds some a lot wanted urgency and helped seal a 3-1 win.
Elliott and firm will likely be seeking to end off the job on Tuesday night (Picture credit score: Getty Photos)
The midfielder – at the moment valued at €35milion by Transfermarkt – will likely be hoping that these cameos will likely be sufficient to persuade Slot that he deserves a spot within the beginning XI in opposition to the French champions, after the Dutchman admitted he could have gotten his choice improper in opposition to Southampton.
“He bought 45 minutes right this moment as a result of he did so properly in Paris,” Slot mentioned post-match. “However there’s additionally a cause why I performed so many occasions the opposite ones and on a regular basis they deserved that belief.
“However right this moment, if I may do it another time over, I might have began it in a different way than I began right this moment… however you do not know this upfront.”
Harvey Elliott sat down with Ben Foster for Amazon Prime Video with the full video out there right here.
