Harvey Elliott’s four-minute cameo proved to make all the difference last week when Liverpool completed a stunning smash and grab raid in their Champions League last-16 first leg clash against Paris Saint-Germain.
The 21-year-old replaced Mohamed Salah for the final stages of a clash which the hosts had dominated in the Parcs des Princes and netted with his first touch of the ball to give Arne Slot’s side a slender first-leg advantage ahead of Tuesday night’s return leg at Anfield.
The goal, which came via a lightning speed breakaway after he was picked out by Darwin Nunez came during a game which saw PSG pepper 27 shots at the Liverpool goal with goalkeeper Alisson making nine saves.
Liverpool star Harvey Elliott opens up on his Paris Saint-Germain winner
Elliott’s remarkable winner was his fourth goal of the season and third in the Champions League this term, and means Liverpool will start the second leg as favourites to progress to the quarter-finals, where either Aston Villa or Club Brugge await the winners.
And according to Elliott, Liverpool have video games to thank for the strike, as the former Fulham man’s time spent playing FIFA (latterly EA Sports FC) helped tee him up when he entered the action in place of Salah.
“Obviously watching Nuno Mendes against Mo, he had a really, really good game and watching him from before and playing with his card on FIFA you know his pace is ridiculous,” Elliott admitted to Ben Foster for Amazon Prime Video.
“So, I thought, I’m not going to outdo him for pace here so I was just seeing how the moment would go. He went like this [turned] and saw me, and then he turned his back so he was facing straight forward.
“And I thought, right if there’s ever a time I need to use whatever speed I have in me, it’s now!”
Elliott - who was voted at No.9 in FourFourTwo's most exciting teenagers in the world in 2023 - again made an impact after coming off the bench on Saturday, when he was introduced by Slot at half-time with Liverpool trailing 1-0 to bottom-dwellers Southampton. The England U21 international gave the Reds some much needed urgency and helped seal a 3-1 win.
The midfielder - currently valued at €35milion by Transfermarkt - will be hoping that these cameos will be enough to convince Slot that he deserves a place in the starting XI against the French champions, after the Dutchman admitted he may have got his selection wrong against Southampton.
"He got 45 minutes today because he did so well in Paris,” Slot said post-match. “But there's also a reason why I played so many times the other ones and all the time they deserved that trust.
“But today, if I could do it one more time over, I would have started it differently than I started today… but you don't know this in advance."
Harvey Elliott sat down with Ben Foster for Amazon Prime Video with the full video available here.
