Paris Thrashes Barça in Champions League Quarter-Final Match

The game: Barça was scuttled, Paris took full advantage of it

The Champions League is played on small details… and sometimes big mistakes. Tuesday at the Lluis-Companys stadium, the meeting initially took a turn which should not have delighted Luis Enrique. From the start, Paris took control of the game but after 12 minutes, Raphinha opened the scoring and after 20, Robert Lewandowski was very close to making the break. PSG was then incapable of being dangerous, until the exclusion of Ronald Araujo.

The first gift in a long series. Vitinha thus had all the time he needed, on a short corner, to adjust Marc-André ter Stegen for the 1-2 goal. Then Joao Cancelo threw himself incomprehensibly at the feet of Ousmane Dembélé, conceding the penalty for 1-3. Finally, a failed clearance from Jules Koundé – not helped by Fermin Lopez – gave Mbappé the double goal.

Paris managed its numerical superiority perfectly, but Barça helped it by losing its bearings and its nerves, like Xavi, who was excluded. And with the exception of a few occasions in the last 20 minutes, the Blaugrana club never really reacted, suffering for the second time in a row a 4-1 defeat at home against Paris.

Kylian Mbappé and Vitinha, two of PSG’s heroes during the success in Barcelona

Credit: Getty Images

The players: Mbappé resurfaces, Lewandowski not happy

Long discreet in the quarter-final against Barça, Kylian Mbappé emerged at the end of the match to offer a fantastic qualification to PSG. Paris was able to count on a great Marquinhos, an authoritarian Lucas Hernandez and a whirlwind duo Bradley Barcola – Ousmane Dembélé, the former Lyonnais having been reinstated in the starting eleven. In the middle, Vitinha took care of everything else.

Opposite, Robert Lewandowski missed the opportunity to change this match for Barça with a big opportunity in the 20th minute, and again lacked a little precision at the end of the match. Cruel for the Pole, yet so valuable in the game in this double confrontation. From Araujo to Cancelo via Koundé, the Catalan defense made too many mistakes.

“The good news is that Paris qualified without a great Mbappé”

The X factor: The exclusion of Ronald Araujo

For almost half an hour, Paris had the ball without being dangerous. And Barça stung again. Trailing and in bad shape, PSG then saw the match change to a restart error which pushed Ronald Araujo to foul Bradley Barcola in the position of last defender (29th). Logical red card, and the end of the beans for the Blaugranas who almost no longer existed after that.

At the state: 3

Paris is now the club that has most often eliminated FC Barcelona in the Champions League, as indicated by Opta, after 1994-95 (quarters) and 2020-21 (8th). Stats Foot specifies for its part that PSG is the 3rd club to eliminate the Blaugrana after losing its first leg at home in the knockout phase of the European Cup after Cologne in the UEFA Cup (1980) and… FC Metz in the Coupe des Coupes (1984).

The statement: Nasser al-Khelaïfi, president of PSG (RMC)

That’s wonderful. We were waiting for this moment. We are here to go as far as possible. I had confidence before the first leg, after the first leg, before this return leg. We were ready for this moment.

The question: Are the planets aligning for PSG?

Beaten in the first leg in front of their home crowd, quickly trailing and close to conceding the break goal, Paris Saint-Germain really didn’t come far from another disappointment in the Champions League on Tuesday. We will not forget that at 11 against 11, Luis Enrique’s men did not display much serenity for 120 minutes. But the referee of the match made the right decisions, and Paris took advantage of the opponent’s actions and gifts as a team in the last four of the Champions League is supposed to do.

Seeing Paris reach the semi-finals was, however, something unexpected, for a club which said it was in a year of transition, less obsessed with the C1, and which was severely shaken up in the competition this season. Imagining it in the final is no longer incongruous: the Parisians will meet Borussia Dortmund in the half, whom they beat in the first leg in the group stage before earning a draw in Germany. No need to beat around the bush: this draw is well within their reach. Even more clearly than if they had inherited Atlético de Madrid, who had all the cards in hand to win the double confrontation in the first leg.

And since we cannot talk about Paris without him, Kylian Mbappé has also seen the horizon brighten. Singled out after a first leg where we only saw his shadow, the Parisian star still took time to get into his match but ended up finding the light. A penalty first, a double fox then, and here the former Monegasque is completely revamped. Paris also accepts this willingly.

Kylian Mbappé during the quarter-final second leg of the Barcelona-PSG Champions League.

Credit: Getty Images

2024-04-17 06:23:00
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