Liverpool were hanging on by a thread.
An hour into the first leg of their UEFA Champions League quarter-final against Paris Saint-Germain, Arne Slot's side, playing an unfamiliar 5-2-1-2 formation, were trailing by a solitary goal at the Parc des Princes. It could very easily have been four.
With a trip to Anfield to come, PSG boss Luis Enrique was the picture of frustration despite his side leading, as Désiré Doué and Ousmane Dembélé conspired to miss gilt-edged chances that would at least make this game safe. The Champions League holders were looking every bit what that title denotes, bar for the final, killing blow.
Enter Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.
Liverpool were in an ideal defensive shape when Kvaratskhelia had the ball in the middle of the pitch, slightly towards the left channel. The Georgian played a pass out to João Neves, who had drifted towards the left touchline, and made a dash for it.
To all eyes it looked like a decoy run - there wasn't much space to run into and Ryan Gravenberch appeared to have him well covered, as did Virgil van Dijk. However, by the time Kvaratskhelia's pass had reached Neves, it had sucked in both Jeremie Frimpong and Ibou Konate towards PSG's left and opened up a gap.
It would still take quite the pass to open up Liverpool and Neves responded with a perfectly threaded through ball, scything through the opposition backline and right into Kvaratskhelia's path. The Georgian had used his speed and strength to gain a step on Gravenberch and had run into the box.
The cat was among the pigeons.
Alarm bells were ringing in the Liverpool backline - this was a position Kvaratskhelia was usually lethal from. He could curl one into the opposite top corner, or even find another PSG shirt in the box. It perhaps explained why Gravenberch panicked. With Van Dijk inexplicably jogging back, the Dutchman was the only one who could stop PSG's Georgian hitman, and Gravenberch pawed at him, both with arms and clattering his knee into Kvaratskhelia's thighs.
The PSG winger could have gone down in search of an iffy penalty, but certain in his abilities, he stayed up, and just... kept going. In control of the ball, in control of the box, and in control of his emotions - unlike his profligate teammates this night. Dancing further towards goal, Kvaratskhelia drew in Liverpool goalkeeper and fellow international teammate, Giorgi Mamardashvili.
Perhaps it was Mamardashvili's presence that had made Kvaratskhelia so certain, because he responded to the Georgian keeper charging at him by simply side-stepping past him, his hips faking to shoot, before using his momentum to dance towards the centre of goal.
Joe Gomez and Milos Kerkez had come hurtling towards the goal line, ready to block Kvaratskhelia's angles at goal, but while everyone else around him was losing their minds, the Georgian winger kept calm. All the time in the world available to him, having left Gravenberch and Mamardashvili in the dust.
While the entire world expected him to shoot, Kvaratskhelia took another pause, and Gomez and Kerkez's momentum had them stumbling the other way and out of the reckoning. The goal now at his mercy, Kvaratskhelia calmly stroked the ball home, into the net.
65 minutes in, the Georgian hitman had cut the thread Liverpool were hanging by. 2-0, game over. PSG were on their way to victory, courtesy another Khvicha Kvaratskhelia special on a big UCL night.