Paris Saint-Germain reached the semi-finals of the Champions League after a show of strength. The French champions around superstar Kylian Mbappé won at FC Barcelona 4:1 (1:1) after falling behind thanks to a long majority and moved into the semi-finals of the premier class for the fourth time. PSG meets Borussia Dortmund there.
Former Dortmund player Ousmane Dembele (40th), Vitinha (53rd) and Mbappe (61st, penalty kick/89th) scored in front of 50,309 fans in the Olympic Stadium for coach Luis Enrique’s team, which won the first leg in their own stadium with 2-3 had lost. Barca initially took the lead thanks to Raphinha (12th), who was successful twice in the first leg. However, after the red card against Ronald Araujo for an emergency stop (29th), the game ended.
Barca therefore has to wait for its first semi-final appearance since 2019, and Ilkay Gündogan and Marc-Andre ter Stegen’s dream of winning the pot was also shattered. PSG also took revenge for their elimination in the round of 16 in 2017. At that time, Barcelona had turned a 0-4 defeat in Paris into a spectacular 6-1.
“We’ll turn things around,” Enrique had said before kick-off, but his team was initially far from a miracle. Barca took an early lead when Raphinha converted a pass from 16-year-old Lamine Yamal. The teenager is the youngest player to ever appear in a Champions League quarter-final – just ahead of his teammate Pau Cubarsi (17), who was also in the starting line-up.
However, after Araujo was shown a red card, Paris was in control and Dembele shot the ball under the crossbar to equalize. The Paris club, which has never won the Champions League despite spending millions on the long-lost Lionel Messi and Mbappe, who left in the summer, now put constant pressure on Ter Stegen.
With success: Vitinha made it 2-1. In return, Gündogan hit the post. His coach Xavi got terribly upset about this and kicked a banner towards the fourth official. The Spaniard was shown a red card for this (56th). Just five minutes later, Mbappé made it 3-1 from the spot, and the final score also went to Kylian Mbappé.