Liverpool's penalty shootout HORROR show was entirely predictable

Liverpool are OUT of the Champions League and their dreams of a treble are over for another year.

Gianluigi Donnarumma - not for the first time on English soil - was the penalty shootout hero.

Liverpool Transfer News Today: Kerkez BOMBSHELL as offer put to star

Where once he helped Italy win Euro 2020 at Wembley, here the goalkeeper was on hand to provide two saves that saw Paris Saint-Germain overcome the Reds at Anfield.

READ MORE: The TRUTH behind Mo Salah's surprise PSG meeting

Darwin Nunez and Curtis Jones were the unlucky players in Red while PSG’s penalty-takers stayed perfect to win the shootout 4-1.

The dice were loaded against Arne Slot’s side for the shootout with PSG winning BOTH tosses ahead of the spot-kicks.

Where were Liverpool's other penalty-takers?

It was PSG’s stand-in captain Achraf Hakimi who decided to shoot first and the Morocco international ALSO decided the penalties would be taken at the Anfield Road End.

No doubt Liverpool would have loved to take the penalties at the opposite end of the ground - shooting into the Kop - as opposed to in front of PSG’s vociferous Ultras group.

And Liverpool’s fate was sealed early.

READ MORE: Why Darwin Nunez has decided to LEAVE Liverpool

Mohamed Salah rarely lets a teammate take a penalty in normal time and he was first up here too. Cody Gakpo is the ONLY other Liverpool player to have taken a penalty for the side this season.

And reliable deputy takers of the recent past - including Fabinho and James Milner - are long gone.

Virgil van Dijk, Harvey Elliott, Andy Robertson and maybe Wataru Endo might reasonably have been expected to shoot one last night at some stage while good takers like Trent Alexander-Arnold, Dominik Szoboszlai and Alexis Mac Allister were no longer on the field.

Nunez and Jones seal Slot's fate

That meant Nunez and Jones jumping up the queue. Both actually have decent penalty records. Nunez had scored 12 of 13 - per Transfermarkt - before Wednesday night.

And Jones had slotted three times in three previous shootouts for the Reds.

But there was a flaw in the plan. Donnarumma is a giant of a man; he fills the goal. Any taker hitting a penalty against him better make sure to find the corner.

Neither Nunez - who looked short of confidence on the run-up - nor Jones managed to do so. And a quick look at their penalty records shows PSG’s analysts and Donnarumma had done their homework.

Donnarumma does his homework

Darwin regularly hits to the goalkeeper’s left while Jones only seems to go low to the goalkeeper’s right. Both records are illustrated above. The Italy international read both penalties like a book and kept them out.

How Liverpool might wish they had Trent, Mac Allister and Szoboszlai on the pitch by the end as they have enviable penalty records in their own right. But the rest of them failed to get out of Salah’s shadow, condemning the Reds to a very predictable loss on spot-kicks.

READ MORE: Transfer target shows Liverpool EXACTLY what they're missing