Despite a miserable starting position, Paris St. Germain still made it to the semi-finals of the Champions League. In the 4-1 win in Barcelona, an early sending off also helped to make up for the 2-3 home defeat in the first leg. PSG will now face Borussia Dortmund in the semi-finals.
Barcelona initially took the lead through Raphina (12th) at Camp Nou on Tuesday evening (April 16, 2024). Ousmane Dembélé made it 1-1 in the 40th minute, and after the break Vitinha (54th) and Kylian Mbappé (61st) led the guests to success with a penalty kick. Barcelona also lost personnel prematurely: Ronald Araujo had to leave the field with a red card in the 29th minute, and coach Xavi followed him after just under an hour. Shortly before the end of the game, Mbappé put the lid on it again (89th).
Live ticker to read: Barcelona vs. Paris arrow right quarter-finals arrow right
Paris dominant from the start
From the kick-off, the guests from Paris showed that they wanted to implement their coach’s courageous announcement with full conviction, despite the unfavorable starting position. PSG coach Luis Enrique, who wore the Barca jersey during FC Barcelona’s last Champions League triumph in 2015, made it clear the day before the match: “For me there is no question that we will make it 2-3 can.”
The guests started the duel dominantly, but without creating any clear scoring opportunities. Barcelona allowed themselves to be pushed surprisingly far into their own half, but this gave them space to counterattack in the 12th minute.
With an opening pass from Ronald Araujo to Lamine Yamal on the right, Barca caused the PSG defense to wobble, the youngster easily danced past Nuno Mendes and laid the ball flat to Raphinha at five. The Brazilian simply had a quicker start than Marquinhos and somehow pushed the ball into the goal with his shin.
Lewandowski missed the 2-0
Paris seemed unfazed, continued to push the pace, but was still vulnerable on defense. In the 20th minute, Nuno Mendes looked unfortunate again, his attempt to clear the ball landed directly at Robert Lewandowski. The Pole moved in again and finished hard with a full shot – just over the crossbar and thus just past the 2-0 mark.
Susceptibility to counterattacks remained an issue that evening. In the 27th minute, national goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen brilliantly directed a shot from Kylian Mbappé around the post. Two minutes later, Paris again bridged the Barca midfield almost unhindered, Bradley Barcola went alone towards Ter Stegen and was brought down by Araujo just before the edge of the penalty area. Referee Istvan Kovacs immediately reached into his back pocket: red for Araujo plus a free kick that Ousmane Dembelé curled just past the crossbar.
Dembélé equalized before the break
As a result, Dembelé turned up the heat more and more. Five minutes before the break, the ex-Dortmunder pulled away from ex-Bayern Joao Cancelo, received a pass from the strong Barcola from the left and finished with a strong technical performance to make it 1-1. Shortly afterwards, Dembélé even had the opening goal on his feet, but poked the ball past both Ter Stegen and the far post.
Paris were closer to the opening goal and this trend continued after the break. Ashraf Hakimi forced Ter Stegen to react quickly in the 49th minute, and three minutes later Fabian Ruiz pushed the ball just past the Barca goal. Two turns of the pointer further on, Ter Stegen was beaten: Vitinha had far too much space in the backcourt and was literally invited to shoot from distance: 1:2, at that moment PSG had forced extra time.
Red for Xavi, Mbappé scores from the spot
But that was obviously not enough for them in the majority. The guests continued to run wildly and almost swallowed Ilkay Gündogan’s equalizer – but the captain of the German national team only hit the outside post in the 55th minute.
It was a tragic phase from Barca’s point of view. Immediately after the aluminum misfortune, Coach
Paris gets a penalty, Barcelona doesn’t
He had just arrived when Joao Cancelo unnecessarily clipped Dembélé in the penalty area, who was actually just about to leave the danger zone. Mbappé, who Barcelona had controlled quite well until then, converted the penalty to make it 3-1 (61st).
Barcelona had a bit of bad luck shortly after conceding the third goal: Gündogan was hit on the heel by Vitinha after a courageous attempt in the penalty area – but Kovacs denied the hosts the penalty and instead showed Gündogan a yellow card.
Lewandowski fails, Mbappé makes everything clear
After that, Barcelona tried everything again, but Lewandowski failed twice because of Gianluigi Donnarumma. When Barcelona then threw everything forward when they were outnumbered, Mbappé put the finishing touches on the third margin: in his farewell season for Paris, the superstar scored from close range to make the final score 4-1.