By Ian Whittell

Roberto Firmino, relegated to a substitute role due to an eye injury, came off the bench to remind Liverpool supporters that even if the Premier League remains the Holy Grail in their quest for honours this season, the Champions League will not be neglected.

A minute of the three of added time had gone when the Brazilian, on the field for barely 20 minutes, gathered a Virgil Van Dijk pass after a Liverpool corner had broken down and the ball was lost by PSG’s Kylian Mbappe.

Firmino showed composure and intricate footwork to make room in the area before delivering a perfect finish, past the diving goalkeeper and into the far corner.

Eight minutes earlier, A French side boasting the world’s two most expensive footballers — Neymar and Mbappe — saw that pair combine to score a late equaliser on an enthralling Anfield evening.

Mohamed Salah, a figure who could do no wrong in his season for the ages 12 months ago, was at fault, needlessly giving up the ball in midfield and sparking a French counter that ended with the Brazilian playing in Mbappe for a confident finish.

It was a painful lesson for a Liverpool side that has swept all before it domestically so far but looked like having only themselves to blame for not killing off their opening Champions League group game, or at least being more able with their time management.

Earlier, Daniel Sturridge had been the unlikely early hero as Jurgen Klopp’s team laid out their intentions for this season’s competition.

Last week, the Liverpool manager had become engaged in a verbal tussle with TV pundit Gary Neville who had suggested his team should concentrate on the league, rather than European interests.

But, with memories of that final defeat still fresh, Liverpool clearly want more of the same and Sturridge, starting only because of that injury to Firmino, set the tone when he rose above Thiago Silva to meet Andy Robertson’s cross and head a superb opener into the top corner on the half-hour.

Within minutes, the lead was doubled after Georginio Wijnaldum was tripped by Juan Bernat and the ever-reliable elder statesman James Milner buried an inch-perfect penalty into the bottom right corner of the Paris goal.

Anfield had erupted after the first, doubly so after the second, but there is a reason Klopp talked up his opponents as Champions League contenders, and they were about to show it on 40 minutes, pulling a goal back, crucially, before the interval.

Angel Di Maria’s cross took a fortunate deflection off Robertson and defender Thomas Meunier remained composed in dealing with the bouncing ball and firing it into the Liverpool goal from 15 yards.

Yet Liverpool’s interval lead was fully justified even if PSG had made a comfortable enough start to the evening. That lasted all of five minutes.

The pre-match build-up and atmosphere had been predictably intense, one of those famous Anfield nights that have become a football cliche but are no less electrifying for that fact.

At least half a dozen times in the next five minutes, the PSG goal was threatened and the home side forced seven corners, every one of them well-executed specimens from the training ground.

Best of all, Milner’s cross was met by Virgil Van Dijk who did well to keep his shot down, forcing Alphonse Areola into a spectacular one-handed save in his top corner.

On came the red tide and by the time Sadio Mane curled a shot at Areola and yet another Salah corner was headed just over by an off-balance Joe Gomez, PSG coach Thomas Tuchel was in the face of the Turkish fourth official and a Liverpool opener looked inevitable.

Yet Tuchel’s side has a more durable look about it than so many of PSG’s previous vintages, the wealthy French side never having advanced past the quarter-final stage of the competition.

A rare lapse in the home defence presented Neymar with his first shot, parried by Alisson with Edinson Cavani unable to do anything more from the rebound than strike it back against the keeper, By now the thousands of visiting fans, many of them bare-chested on a temperate Anfield evening, were in fine voice and if Mbappe had not fired over, unmarked, soon after the first Liverpool goal, they might have matched their hosts.

After a slightly pedestrian opening to the second half, Salah appeared to have tapped in a third on 57 minutes, only for the ‘goal’ to be rightly ruled out after Sturridge had stuck his boot into Areola’s groin in the build-up.

Sturridge should definitely have claimed a goal when he rose to meet an Aexander-Arnold cross which he could only head at the keeper before the striker curled a shot wide from the edge of the area, one of his last acts before making way for Firmino.

A superb, strong run by Mane ended with the Liverpool man firing across an open goalline as his side sought to kill off the game although Firmino was ultimately able to do precisely that.

LIVERPOOL (4-3-3):

Alisson 7; Alexander-Arnold 7, Gomez 7, Van Dijk 9, Robertson 7; Milner 8, Wijnaldum 7, Henderson 7; Salah 7 (Shaqiri 85), Sturridge 7 (Firmino 71, 6), Mane 7 (Fabinho 90).

PARIS SAINT GERMAIN (4-3-3):

Areola 7; Meunier 8, Kimpembe 7, Thiago Silva 7, Bernat 6; Rabiot 7, Marquinhos 8, Di Maria 6 (Choupo-Moting 80, 6); Mbappe 6, Cavani 7 (Draxler 80, 6), Neymar 6.

Referee:

C Cakir (Turkey) 7