When was the last time a side headed to Anfield feeling supremely confident it would progress from a European knockout tie against Liverpool?

Perhaps Barcelona in 2019, when a side full of serial Champions League winners and the world’s greatest-ever player made the journey to Merseyside holding a three-goal advantage from the first leg. Confidence was understandably high. That’s rarely the case for a visiting opponent and, in the subsequent years, the likes of Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid have traveled to Anfield with a first-leg lead and not felt assured of qualification.

It makes Paris Saint-Germain’s self-belief even more galling ahead of its trip to England next week. To say the French champions are confident of beating Liverpool is putting it mildly.

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“We're going to show what kind of team we are. It's been a long time since we lost, it's up to us to show our personality and our strength,” midfielder Vitinha said after the defeat to Liverpool on Wednesday night. “We're going to go there, we're going to play a great game, we're going to score and we're going to go through, I'm sure of it.”

Those views were echoed elsewhere in the PSG ranks. “We are ready to go to Liverpool to get a victory that we deserved today,” opined Achraf Hakimi. “Today, we saw the desire and the personality of the whole team. We dominated, we created chances, we had the ball, we attacked... I don't think the match will end the same way twice.”

Willian Pacho claimed the team ‘deserved the win’, while Khvicha Kvaratskhelia stated PSG is the ‘better team’. Manager Luis Enrique said Liverpool’s win was ‘unfair’ and ‘weird’, while Luis Campos puerilely berated the referee in the tunnel for not sending off Ibrahima Konate.

A subsequent report in L’Equipe claimed Gianluigi Donnarumma was told post-match by a team-mate: “Don't worry, we'll qualify.” PSG was also said to be ‘surprised by Liverpool's level on Wednesday evening’ and now feels entirely confident that it will progress to the quarter-finals.

It’s a remarkable stance against a side that topped the Champions League league phase, has progressed to the Carabao Cup final and has made light work of the Premier League title race so far. Confidence is one thing, but the arrogance of its response was remarkable.

In defeat, PSG showed its own fragilities and its desperation to be viewed among Europe’s elite, accompanied by a healthy dose of hubris. It’s not the reaction of a side used to overcoming tricky opponents in the competition; it’s difficult to imagine a similar meltdown from Real Madrid or Manchester City were they in PSG’s position.

It’s also naive in the extreme from the Parisians, allowing messages that they consider themselves to be the superior team to leak into the media. It will only stir up additional motivation for Liverpool, a side hunting down a treble in Arne Slot’s first season.

No-one can deny that the visitors got lucky at the Parc des Princes on Wednesday, even Slot admitted it, but the inability to humbly accept defeat points to a side that possesses chronic self-doubt at this level. It may be a more rounded and more resilient team than those which have preceded it, but PSG’s Champions League scars are still evident.

For all its dominance against Liverpool, that PSG only recorded an expected goals of 1.78 indicates it did struggle to get beyond Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate. Winning knockout ties isn’t purely down to quality or chance creation, there’s a certain level of control and game management that is required, plus resistance and poise.

Even Slot hinted at that on Friday when referencing how often Real Madrid secures a result in the Champions League without performing to its maximum. PSG may well still progress - it has quality and is unquestionably among Europe’s best teams - but the bullish attitude is misguided.

It also overlooks one of the biggest factors in the two-legged tie: overcoming Liverpool at Anfield. Sceptics may point to the fact that the Reds have actually won just one of its last five Champions League knockout matches at home, was blown away by Atalanta last year on English soil and has lost a Champions League game at Anfield in each of its last four seasons - but that would be to ignore the catalogue of memorable European nights under the lights in Liverpool.

There’s an energy, an unquantifiable force that accompanies nights at Anfield. It tends to have a debilitating impact on the opposition while simultaneously enhancing Liverpool.

Fans will have their own favorites but chief among them must be that magical night in 2019 when Barcelona came to Anfield, supremely confident of making it to the final in Madrid. Divock Origi and co had other plans. It would be foolish to ever discount Liverpool.