Sid Lowe was at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys tonight. Here’s his verdict. Thanks for reading this MBM. Nighty night!
PSG cavort in delight. Barcelona look shell-shocked, some of their players in tears. As good as PSG have been this evening, Barca have been architects of their own downfall, Ronald Araújo getting himself sent off for a cynical tug on Bradley Barcola with less than 30 minutes on the clock, João Cancelo recklessly and needlessly upending Ousmane Dembélé to concede what proved to be the decisive penalty. Mes Que Un Shambles. But PSG were magnificent. Kylian Mbappé, of course, but also the aforementioned Barcola, Marquinhos, Vitinha and Achraf Hakimi. Oh, and Dembélé, who played to a soundtrack of furious whistles but scored the goal that turned the direction of this tie around. PSG will face Borussia Dortmund, who have beaten Atletico Madrid 4-2 tonight and 5-4 on aggregate, in the semis.
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FULL TIME: Barcelona 1-4 PSG (agg 4-6)
PSG gain comeback-infused revenge for 2017!
90 min +7: … and now Fermin is booked for dissent as well. Probably just as well the whistle’s about to blow.
90 min +6: Raphinha is booked for dissent. He then nearly picks up a second yellow for yakking on.
90 min +5: Plenty of tears in the stands. And no wonder: Barcelona had a two-goal cushion and let everything slip through their fingers in spectacular fashion. PSG have been marvellous, though, even if their comeback was sparked by Ronald Araújo’s unwise challenge.
90 min +3: Mbappe attempts the hat-trick goal with a long-distance rake. Ter Stegen does exceptionally well to parry a shot arrowing towards the top right.
90 min +2: The seats at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys are flipping up at pace. The home fans flooding out.
90 min: The PSG celebrations border on bedlam. There will be seven added minutes. Donnarumma is booked for something or other.
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GOAL! Barcelona 1-4 PSG (Mbappe 89); agg 4-6
Raphinha tries to score direct from the corner. Donnarumma is forced to tip over the bar. But from the next corner, PSG steal possession and romp upfield on the counter. Hakimi down the right. He crosses low. Mbappe has a whack at goal. Ter Stegen saves with his knee. Asensio meets the rebound with a fierce drive. Ter Stegen saves at full stretch. Kounde tries to clear, but only cushions the ball into the path of Mbappe, who isn’t missing a second chance. He slots into the bottom right, and this tie is over!
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88 min: Lewandowski snaffles possession in the centre circle and bowls down the middle of the park at speed. He takes a whack from the edge of the box. Marquinhos blocks with his behind, and celebrates as though he’s just scored. It’ll be a corner, though, which will be taken after Dembele is replaced by Kolo Muani.
86 min: Barcelona are enjoying their best spell of the match since scoring early in the first half. A bit of possession in the Parisian half. The visitors suddenly looking a little bit shaky. But Martinez then floats a cross from the left out of play for a goal kick. Pressure off. PSG don’t rush the restart.
85 min: Raphinha takes, swinging it in from the right. Donnarumma races off his line to punch, and clean misses the ball. He clatters into Lewandowski, but when the whistle goes, it’s not for a penalty, it’s for a clear offside on the striker. The PSG keeper gets away with a big one there.
84 min: Felix’s first involvement is the winning of a free kick just to the right of the PSG box. Big chance for the ten men coming up!
83 min: A double change for Barca: João Cancelo and Frenkie de Jong make way for João Félix and Fermin.
82 min: A reminder that, with away goals a thing of the past, a goal for Barcelona would force extra time. There’d be penalties if required too.
80 min: Manuel Ugarte comes on for Warren Zaïre-Emery, PSG boss Luis Enrique clearly of a mind to keep hold of what he has. “I’d certainly pay to hear what’s going through Xavi’s mind,” writes Charles Antaki. “Stripped of the Catalan swearing, it would be something like ‘that it’s come to this!’ on perpetual loop.”
78 min: Raphinha dribbles hard down the inside-left channel. A little dragback and thrust, and suddenly he’s got space to shoot. He drags a shot across the face of goal and out of play. This is better from Barca, who may have remembered that PSG have their own Champions League demons to conquer.
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77 min: A double change for PSG, who replace Barcola and Fabian Ruiz with Lee Kang-in and Marco Asensio. The latter, formerly of Real Madrid, gets the reception you’d expect.
75 min: Barcola makes good ground down the left but just as he prepares to cross for Mbappe, he’s denied by Cubarsi. The young defender has played well tonight, only to be let down by more experienced team-mates.
73 min: A bit of space for Lewandowski, 25 yards out. He lets the ball run across him, right to left, before pearling a fierce low drive towards the bottom right. It’s heading in, but Donnarumma sticks out a strong arm. The ball sits up for Ferran Torres, who prepares to slot only for Marquinhos to arrive out of nowhere and hook clear. A reminder that Barca aren’t out of this yet!
72 min: Barcelona need a goal, but they’re not currently capable of stringing together anything resembling a coherent attack. PSG are very comfortable at the moment. “More than a club … but somewhat less than a team tonight,” observes Justin Kavanagh. “They’ll be lucky to finish with the team doctor not on a red.”
70 min: Dembele is still being whistled, but in a slightly half-arsed style now. He wins a corner down the right. Barca half clear it, but it’s not long before Mbappe crosses from the left, nearly finding Barcola in the middle. Had Barcola made contact, he’d have surely poked home from close range.
68 min: Dembele dribbles down the right flank and crosses. Blocked. Throw. He smiles broadly. You’d pay cash money to hear his inner monologue, wouldn’t you.
66 min: Barcelona have lost the plot utterly. The home fans aren’t happy with the referee, who has been a bit card happy but hasn’t got any of the big calls wrong. Meanwhile Gary Naylor quips: “More Than A Club - also a circus!”
64 min: The corner’s half cleared. Barcelona come back at PSG through Gundogan, who breezes into the box from the left and falls over. He wants a penalty, but the referee books him for diving instead. Then another red card for another member of the Barcelona staff. This is wild!
63 min: Marquinhos is booked for jumping into the back of Lewandowski. A fair chance someone else is going to walk tonight. Gundogan wedges the resulting free kick down the inside-left channel. Ferran Torres brings the ball down, but before he can shoot, Barcola arrives on the scene to blooter out for a corner.
62 min: Barca respond by replacing Pedri with Ferran Torres.
GOAL! Barcelona 1-3 PSG (Mbappe 61 pen); agg 4-5
Mbappe, cool as you like, lashes an unstoppable penalty into the top-left corner. Ter Stegen went the correct way, but he was never getting there, as the ball lashes into the inside side netting. What a spot kick! What a tie this is!
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60 min: Ter Stegen jumps about, left and right along his goalline. The referee comes over and gives him the what-for. Mbappe waits patiently for everything to die down, before …
Penalty to PSG!
59 min: Dembele takes a poor touch as he dribbles into the Barca box from the right. He’s going nowhere, but João Cancelo slides in hysterically and cleans him out from behind. What lunacy! As clear a foul as you’ll see. The referee points to the spot.
58 min: This is all PSG now. It’ll be very surprising if Barca manage to turn the tide here.
56 min: Barcelona pick up their second red card of the night. It’s for their manager Xavi, who high-kicks some official Uefa hoardings in a fit of pique over something or other. The hosts in danger of losing the plot completely here.
55 min: Lewandowski made a miserable attempt to close Vitinha down there. But Barca nearly regain the lead immediately after the restart! Gundogan is afforded time and space, 20 yards out, and his low screaming shot clips the outside of the left-hand post. Donnarumma was beaten all ends up!
GOAL! Barcelona 1-2 PSG (Vitinha 54); agg 4-4
Barcelona can’t get out. Dembele crosses from the right and wins a corner that he takes himself. The ball’s worked back to Hakimi, who rolls across to Vitinha, in acres of space in the pocket, just outside the box. He takes a step to advance towards the right-hand edge of the D, and rasps a low shot across Ter Stegen and into the bottom right. It had been coming!
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53 min: The early second-half exchanges suggest it could be a long evening for Barca now. The visitors are after the tie-levelling goal, and they’re coming at their hosts in waves.
52 min: Mbappe dinks a pass down the inside left for Fabián Ruiz, racing into the Barca box at speed. He rasps a low shot across the planted Ter Stegen and inches wide of the right-hand post. So close again!
50 min: Lewandowski is booked for planting his elbow onto the side of Hernandez’s head. Tell you what, you’ve seen red cards given for less. Barca would have been in all sorts.
49 min: Hakimi strides down the inside-right channel and takes a speculative whack. Ter Stegen nearly makes an appalling balls of it, his block pinging backwards and ballooning over the bar. Only just over. And from the resulting corner, Barcola very nearly forces home from the left-hand corner of the six-yard box. Ter Stegen more assured this time as he gathers.
47 min: Raphinha gifts PSG possession cheaply and the visitors counter at speed. Barcola tries to release Mbappe in to the box with a pass down the inside-left channel. Mbappe backheels the ball on the byline, off Kounde and out for a corner … but inexplicably the linesman awards Barca a goal kick. Mbappe is astonished.
Barcelona get the second half started. No changes.
Half-time postbag. “Why in the universe did the Barca players surround the referee like that after the red card? Surely they must have known that he wasn’t going to put his card back in his pocket? I thought Pep was the coach of Man City now. I guess his legacy lives on” – Eagle Brosi
“I’m not saying that Ousmane Dembele is driven to the heights of his talent by a need to avenge his grievances, but 67% of his goals this season have come against Barcelona. There is power in pettiness” – Kári Tulinius
Half-time entertainment … with tomorrow night in mind.
HALF TIME: Barcelona 1-1 PSG (agg: 4-3)
There’s enough time for Cubarsí to ship possession, allowing PSG to launch one last attack of the half. Barcola and Fabian Ruiz combine down the left, but the latter’s low cross is deflected out by Cubarsi, atoning for his error. But there’s no time for the corner to be taken, and both teams race off to work out what to do next, in the wake of a dramatic to-and-fro half. A huge second half coming up!
45 min +3: Dembele is this close to levelling this tie. Nuno Mendes crosses deep from the left. Dembele meets the dropping ball and screeches a volley across Ter Stegen and millimetres wide of the left-hand post. Wow.
45 min +2: Gundogan lofts a ball down the middle. Lewandowski telescopes a leg in the hope of diverting it goalwards from the edge of the area, but he can’t connect and Donnarumma claims.
45 min +1: There will be three additional minutes, and the first of them sees Fabian Ruiz booked for a sneaky and snide clip on Pedri’s heel.
45 min: Barcola makes off down the left and turns Kounde inside and out like an old sock, before lashing a shot-cum-cross through the six-yard box and out for a goal kick. Barca could do with hearing the half-time whistle.
44 min: Raphinha wins a free kick by running slap-bang into Zaire-Emery. Brief respite for the hosts, who take their time to take it.
42 min: Barcelona are rocking now. PSG pushing them back, the scent of blood in the nostrils. Vitinha lashes a shot over the bar from the edge of the D.
41 min: Well, Dembele’s rammed those whistles down a few warbling throats. And in the immediate wake of the goal, Martinez and Mbappe grapple childishly and both go into the book. What drama here!
GOAL! Barcelona 1-1 PSG (Dembele 40); agg 4-3
Barcola strides down the left and fires a low cross through the six-yard box. The ball evades Mbappe in the middle, but Dembele, coming in from the right, lashes an unstoppable shot into the top-right corner of the net from ten yards! Game on!
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38 min: Dembele whistles down the right. It’s an exciting run, but João Cancelo sticks out a leg to time a tackle to perfection. More for the home crowd to enjoy.
36 min: Lewandowski and Hakimi come together. The former falls over, clutching his ear. It was a 50-50 challenge, but the referee gives it to Barcelona, and the home fans demand red-coloured retribution. That’s a stretch; it’s a free kick and nothing more. Lewandowski not happy. Hakimi isn’t that content with the decision either. Referee István Kovács has a job on now, after making that big (albeit correct) decision. Barcelona and their fans are going to howl for everything.
34 min: Barca have to bolster their depleted defence, and a disappointed Yamal is sacrificed for Iñigo Martínez.
33 min: It’s all PSG now, as you’d imagine, with ten-man Barca shocked and stuttering. Fabian Ruiz barrels down the left but his low cross is snaffled by Ter Stegen.
32 min: Mbappe aims the resulting free kick towards the top-left corner. Ter Stegen is beaten, but the ball flies over the bar.
31 min: Araujo is livid, arguing that it was a shoulder barge, and that Cubarsi was in the middle covering. Neither of those things is true. He’s got to go. He eventually takes his leave, while chuntering away in the affronted style.
RED CARD! Araujo (Barcelona)
29 min: Barcola chases a long ball down the inside-left channel. He’s got a yard on Araujo, who sticks out an arm and drags his man down, right on the edge of the box. Is it a penalty? The referee says no, but draws a red card to send off last man Araujo for his cynicism.
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28 min: Barcola strides into space down the left and cuts back for Mbappe, who slides in and pokes a shot towards the bottom left. Ter Stegen reacts sensationally, sticking out a strong hand to keep it out. From the resulting corner, there’s some head tennis, and Mbappe attempts to steer a header across the keeper and into the top right. Kounde heads clear.
26 min: Mbappe and Nuno Mendes take turns to advance down the left. Nothing comes of it, but that’s a bit better from the Parisians, who are beginning to show in attack again for the first time since conceding the opener.
25 min: Mbappe rolls a lovely pass down the left for Barcola, who is invited to run at the Barca backline. His powerful dribble wins a corner. Dembele tries to score direct, hoping to catch out a wandering Ter Stegen, but only succeeds in whipping the ball into the side netting. Full marks for ambition, though.
23 min: Barca had started slowly. But the goal has changed everything. Most of the play is now in PSG’s half, and the crowd are up.
21 min: Raphinha rips down the left and warp speed. He can’t find Gundogan in the middle, but the ball breaks to Lewandowski, who takes a touch just inside the box before rasping a drive inches over the bar. He really hit that. Had that been on target, it would most likely have taken keeper, net and posts all in one.
19 min: Cubarsí’s sliding tackle denies Dembélé down the right. The former Barca winger catches the defender on the ankle, but it looked accidental and after the initial pain subsides, there’s no lasting damage.
17 min: Another PSG corner from the right. Mbappe rises to meet this one, but can only clank a header over. It wasn’t much of a chance, to be fair.
16 min: Yamal performs another trick, an in-flight stepover that nearly shakes off the discombobulated Nuno Mendes on the right touchline. Not quite this time, but it could be a long night for the PSG right-back. “Dembele arrived at Barcelona at a time when it was still just about possible to think of the team as somehow related to the golden age of Xavi, Iniesta and Messi,” writes Charles Antaki. “He then proceeded to make a fool of himself on the right wing for a few years before coming sort of good, or good enough to find a buyer when the club was on its uppers (still is of course). And now the age of Lewandowski, the least Xavi-Iniesta-Messi type of player imaginable for the club. Nostalgia comes quickly these days.”
14 min: That was an outstanding burst from Yamal, who looks one heck of a player. He started that dribble with a juggled header as he made his way down the touchline, as well. A proper old-school vibe to that one. The Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys en fête!
GOAL! Barcelona 1-0 PSG (Raphinha 12); agg 4-2
… so having said that, the hosts open the scoring! Yamal drops a shoulder to get past Nuno Mendes with absurd ease. He tears away to the byline and fires a low cross towards the near post. Raphinha races in to force into the bottom right from close range. What a run by the 16-year-old Yamal!
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11 min: It’s all PSG in these early exchanges. They’re probing down both wings, and hogging possession. Barca can’t keep hold of the ball at all.
9 min: Under no pressure whatsoever, Dembélé accidentally stands on the ball and slips on his jacksie, the ball sailing out of play along with his dignity. There won’t be a louder cheer tonight, even if Barca score.
7 min: Dembélé, who had the temerity to celebrate his goal against his former club last week, is getting pelters every time he touches the ball. A high-pitched cacophony of whistles. Amid the din, he wins the first corner of the evening down the right. Lewandowski clears it easily enough.
5 min: PSG need a win, so they might as well go for everything. They’ve started this match on the front foot, snapping into challenges, pressing hard.
4 min: Fabián Ruiz attacks down the left but can’t find anybody with his cutback. No matter, the ball falls to Hernández via a deflection, though the subsequent shot, an attempted curler towards the far corner, is blocked at source.
2 min: Mbappé runs at young Cubarsí but comes off second best, sprawling on the turf. He wants a foul, but play is waved on, correctly so. Great challenge by the 17-year-old defender. “In the First World War, the Turkish troops fought their own division in a thick fog while trying to progress in Russia,” writes Krishna Moorthy. “I always thought this was an exaggeration but after FCB fans attacking their own bus, I tend to believe it could actually have happened.”
PSG get the ball rolling. Peter Oh isn’t finished, meanwhile. “Throwing stuff at your own team’s bus?! Mes Que Un Flub.”
The teams are out! Barcelona in their famous red and blue, Paris in second-choice Madridista white. Won’t be long now. “What a tasty clash of mercurial heavyweights! I have no idea what this match will serve up! A gaudy or godlike Gaudi performance by Barça? An eyeful or awful Eiffel showing by the Parisians?” Peter Oh, ladies and gentlemen. He’s here all week. Try the paella.
Our man in Spain, the good doctor Sid Lowe, reports that some Barcelona fans have attacked their own team’s bus under the misapprehension that it was PSG’s. On TNT Sports, pundit Peter Crouch, in a state of high amusement, wryly observes: “If you’re throwing stuff at buses you’re probably struggling for a brain, so to get the wrong bus kind of makes sense.”
Some Barcelona fans threw things at their own bus. The massive club badge and BARCA written on the side was a clue they didn't spot.
— Sid Lowe (@sidlowe) April 16, 2024
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The winner of this tie will play either Borussia Dortmund or Atlético Madrid in the semi-finals. That quarter-final is also very much in the balance; for all the latest from the Westfalenstadion, Taha Hashim is the very man. For optimal dual-MBM pleasure, the Guardian recommends the implementation of a two-screen system (three if you’re counting your telly) or a tab-toggling technique.
A reminder of what happened in that first leg. Presented to you in both minute-by-minute and traditional match report formats, you extremely fortunate people.
Barcelona make one change from the first leg. Pedri replaces the suspended Sergi Roberto. Andreas Christensen, who came off the bench to win the match at the Parc des Prince, also misses out through suspension.
PSG make three changes. Achraf Hakimi, Warren Zaïre-Emery and Bradley Barcola replace Lee Kang-in, Marco Asensio and Lucas Beraldo, who all drop to the bench.
The teams
Barcelona: ter Stegen, Kounde, Araujo, Cubarsi, Joao Cancelo, Gonzalez, de Jong, Gundogan, Yamal, Lewandowski, Raphinha.
Subs: Martinez, Torres, Pena, Joao Felix, Lopez, Alonso, Romeu, Vitor Roque, Astralaga, Casado, Guiu, Fort.
PSG: Donnarumma, Hakimi, Marquinhos, Hernandez, Nuno Mendes, Zaire Emery, Vitinha, Fabian, Dembele, Mbappe, Barcola.
Subs: Navas, Ugarte, Goncalo Ramos, Asensio, Danilo Pereira, Lee, Muani, Mukiele, Carlos Soler, Lucas Beraldo, Skriniar, Tenas.
Referee: Istvan Kovacs (Romania).
To be fair to Barcelona, on the subject of post-2015 comebacks, there’s also this. Not totally irrelevant, given the opposition.
Preamble
Since Barcelona won the Champions League in 2015 under Luis Enrique, they’ve been on the wrong end of three second-leg comebacks in Uefa’s flagship competition. A 2-0 defeat at Atlético Madrid in 2016 after a 2-1 home win. A 3-0 capitulation at Roma in 2018 after a 4-1 home win. That four-goal mauling by Liverpool in 2019 after a 3-0 victory at Camp Nou. Would it complete a narrative arc if they somehow threw away a first-leg lead yet again, against a Paris Saint-Germain team now managed by Luis Enrique? Well, no, not really. But it would still be something. Barça are favourites to progress to a semi-final against either Borussia Dortmund or Atlético Madrid having won 3-2 in Paris last week; the French champions require a superstar performance from Kylian Mbappé if they’re to stop Barça gaining revenge for their 5-2 aggregate victory over the Catalans in 2021. Whatever happens, one big team will be crashing out tonight, so with everything on the line this promises to be a cracker. Kick-off at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys in Barcelona is at 8pm BST, 9pm local. It’s on!
