Oh, the fickle finger of fate!
We saw how cruel football can be last week with PSG on the wrong end of outrageous fortune.
Now it is Liverpool’s turn to suffer – and their trauma was truly terminal.
Don’t get me wrong: PSG deserved to win an epic Champions League tie based on their performance over two legs. Arne Slot all but admitted as much.
The group phase winners’ loss was compounded by a sense that topping the 38-team table – and beating Bayern and Real Madrid – had counted for nothing in the end.
And there was something else in the eyes and body language of the inconsolable Reds that revealed this was more than just a first ever shoot-out defeat in this tournament.
To borrow a familiar phrase from a happier time, it might “mean more”.
It might mean more even than blowing a decent chance of becoming seven times Champions League winners.
More than missing out on a Treble as well as a less-than-ideal way to prepare for a cup final.
Dare it be said, it might just signal the beginning of the end of this great team before it has enjoyed its finest hour.
When Gianluigi Donnarumma dived to save Curtis Jones’ penalty kick, the devastation in the thin red line cut deep.
Let’s start with the trio of out-of-contract players.
Mo Salah was in tears as a second chance to lift Old Big Ears and a shot at the Ballon d’Or slipped by.
Trent Alexander-Arnold was upset to have been taken off knowing he’d miss the Carabao Cup final. A last for his boyhood club?
And perhaps most telling of all, when asked if he’d be staying at the club, Virgil van Dijk said: “I have no idea.”
Hardly reassuring for those still hoping that all three will remain mainstays of this runaway champions-elect team after all.
Then there was Andy Robertson saying: “There are some tired legs out there.”
A statement of the obvious but one with the added poignancy of it being on the 31st birthday of a great servant already considered to be past his best.
It may be reading too much into it to suggest a wholesale exit of Jurgen Klopp era stalwarts, but Liverpool did look more than just knackered.
They are the fourth oldest side in the EPL and only Nottingham Forest have used fewer players. PSG are much younger and rested eight of theirs last weekend.
A first defeat in 40 European ties after leading in the first leg is no way to prepare for a cup final.
It may “only” be the Carabao, and “only” Newcastle, but now they are ruing the “if onlys”.
If only Salah had been sharper with the two early chances. If only Alisson and Ibrahima Konate had not got their wires crossed.
Whatever, the cloud must be lifted by Sunday if Kopites are to continue to call Wembley “Anfield South”.
It won’t be easy after such a long and dramatic night. A magnificent game that Slot called “the best I’ve been involved with.”
The post-mortems began as soon as Darwin Nunez’s penalty was saved.
Some started even before – such was the nervousness of the crowd at seeing their most enigmatic player entrusted with the second kick.
And, sure enough, the doubters’ worst fears were realised.
It wasn’t the worst pen you’ve ever seen but it betrayed a lack of conviction.
Nor was it the one that sealed the Reds’ fate.
Jones had that dubious honour.
And even then, it took a great save and another kick to deliver the knockout blow.
Slot’s motivational powers will now be tested as never before as he must rally a squad that looked genuinely “gutted” after doing the hard part the week before.
“The business end” is what they call this part of the season. It’s also a time when a Treble can shrink to a single if you’re not careful.
The league is done and dusted with the Brasso tin at the ready.
But the League Cup, which Liverpool have won a record 10 times under numerous names, would be Slot’s first trophy for the club.
Fourth in the pecking order it may be, but it’s one on which the Reds claim squatters’ rights.
It’s also one of the loudest finals due to a larger ticket allocation for genuine fans. With fewer faceless officials and freeloaders, it’s more of a people’s cup.
And one that Newcastle, without a trophy since 1969, will be desperate to win and give their long-suffering Geordie faithful something to shout about.
With Alexander-Arnold out and others suffering knocks, Liverpool are going to be stretched.
Hindsight will suggest that the ranks were thin to begin with and were not strengthened in January.
The only significant recruit came in the department that the club are strongest – goalkeeping.
Giorgi Mamardashvili is brilliant but you can’t help but think the Reds might have bought the wrong Georgian.
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia once again showed that he is something special in a position where the need is greater.
But as well as questioning the lack of recruitment, we do have to wonder if Liverpool have taken advantage of a non-vintage Premier League season.
Besides the Man City implosion there’s been the strange failure of Arsenal to bolster a good and injury-wracked side; of Chelsea not to buy either a keeper or a striker.
Spurs and Manchester United have not turned up and Aston Villa have been distracted by a return to Europe.
All of which has allowed the likes of Nottingham Forest, Brighton and Bournemouth to contest Champions League places.
Liverpool are the outstanding team in the EPL but perhaps not – as we had earlier thought – in Europe.
There’s no shame in that from a season in which few pundits predicted more than anything above a top four place.
Whilst some of the aforementioned eliste won’t be as bad again, Liverpool will have learned where they can be a lot better.
The gloom hangs heavy right now and the future is not as bright as once predicted.
But adding an 11th League Cup trophy would be a first step toward lifting it.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.