UEFA Champions League
Barca Makes History With Miracle Comeback Over PSG
Like a jail break, FC Barcelona made the greatest comeback in the history of UEFA Champions League with a 6-5 goal aggregate win over favourites, PSG at the Camp Nou on Wednesday night.
Sergi Roberto scored in the fifth minute of stoppage time to cap Barcelona’s capped a sensational fight back against the Parisians to get the 100,000 partisan Catalan fans erupt in wild jubilation with just 33 seconds to the end of the historic night.
The feat erased the record set by another Spanish side, Deportivo La Coruna who fought back from 1-4 loss to the defending champions, AC Milan at San Siro stadium only to win 4-0 in the return leg of the 2004 second round match of the competition.
Inspite of Luis Suarez’s early opener, a Layvin Kurzawa own goal and Lionel Messi’s penalty, Barca, who lost the first leg 4-0, looked locked back in the jail after Edison Cavani volleyed home what seemed to be the vital away goal for PSG.
However, Neymar restored Barca’s quest as he firstly fired home a sensational free-kick two minutes from time and then converted from the penalty spot.
It was late second half substitute, Roberto capped the biggest comeback in Champions League history when he stretched to turn home Neymar’s dinked cross to the delight of the full house at the stadium.
Barca equally entered the record books by reaching the quarterfinals for a 10th straight season.
Outgoing Barca coach Luis Enrique warned the French champions on Tuesday that his side were capable of scoring six and they needed the full 95 minutes to pull a miracle revival.
No side had ever come back from a 4-0 first leg deficit in the Champions League, but after much pre-match hype of a historic turnaround, Barca truly believed when Suarez opened the scoring after just three minutes.
The PSG defence was stationary as Marquinhos headed Rafinha’s cross high into the air and Suarez nipped in ahead of the flapping goalkeeper Kevin Trapp to nod in despite Thomas Meunier’s best efforts to clear off the line.
In a role reversal from the first leg, Barcelona’s high pressing wasn’t allowing the visitors any chance to attack, while PSG failed to take advantage of the huge spaces in behind the Barca defence on the counter-attack.
Neymar was inches away from delivering a spectacular second when he drilled just wide from well outside the area before Trapp easily collected a Suarez effort from an acute angle.
However, Barca’s hopes were further raised five minutes before the break thanks to more shambolic PSG defending.
Andres Iniesta reached Suarez’s hopeful through ball and his back heel provoked Kurzawa into shanking the ball into his own net on his weaker right foot.
The second period started just as the first ended as Barca edged closer to the history books when Neymar was clipped by the prone Meunier and, after consultation with one of his assistants, German referee Deniz Aytekin pointed to the spot.
Messi made no mistake with the penalty to rifle home his 11th Champions League goal of the season.
Only when 3-0 down did PSG begin to come out in search of the crucial away goal and were nearly rewarded immediately as Meunier got to the by-line and his low cross was turned onto the post by Cavani.
The Uruguayan had to wait just 10 minutes more, though, to find the net.
Kurzawa made amends for his earlier error by heading down a free-kick and Cavani connected sweetly on the volley to register his 38th and seemingly most important goal of the season.
PSG were then to rue to huge missed chances to put the tie completely beyond Barca.
Firstly, Cavani should have had his second as he was played in by Draxler, but this time Marc-Andre ter Stegen stood up to block with an outstretched leg.
PSG’s two-goal hero from the first Angel di Maria had started on the bench, but the former Real Madrid man should have rubbed salt in Barca’s wounds five minutes from time when he somehow skewed wide with just Ter Stegen to beat.
Just when Barca looked down and out Neymar restored hope when he curled home a sensational free-kick high into the top corner.
And as the match entered stoppage time, Barca were awarded a second controversial penalty when Suarez tumbled under a challenge from Marquinhos.
Neymar this time took responsibility to send Trapp the wrong way.
And the Brazilian also showed a cool head among a mad final minute when he cut inside before chipping into the box for substitute Roberto to extend his right leg just enough to beat Trapp and leave PSG floored.
Spain’s LaLiga will be represented by at least five teams in the Champions League next season after Italy’s Lazio were eliminated from the Europa League on Thursday while Athletic Bilbao progressed to the semi-finals.
LaLiga earned the second of two European Performance Spots handed out by UEFA, which go to associations “with the best collective performance by their clubs” in UEFA competitions.
England’s Premier League was the first to secure an extra berth in Europe’s top competition, on top of the four granted to the top four teams in the domestic table.
Villarreal are fifth in the LaLiga standings, with 51 points from 30 matches.
They are three points ahead of sixth-placed Real Betis and eight in front of Celta Vigo and Mallorca, with all three clubs having played one more game than Villarreal.
-Reuters
Real Madrid’s record-breaking manager Carlo Ancelotti had no complaints after his side’s Champions League reign was ended in emphatic fashion by Arsenal in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.
Italian Ancelotti won a record-extending fifth Champions League trophy last season as Real beat Borussia Dortmund at Wembley, but his side went down 2-1 at home to Arsenal for a crushing 5-1 aggregate defeat.
“There are two sides to football, the happy part that has happened to us many times and the sad part we have to handle in the same way. It has happened to us fewer times than to other teams, but we have to manage it because it allows us to be better in the next games.”
When Real keeper Thibaut Courtois saved Bukayo Saka’s early penalty and minutes later Real were awarded a spot kick for a push by Declan Rice on Kylian Mbappe, it seemed that the great escape might still be a possibility.
But Real’s penalty was overturned after a lengthy VAR check, and in truth, they never looked remotely threatening as their bid for a 16th European Cup crown ended in feeble fashion.
“To change the dynamic, we needed something positive, like the penalty he whistled and then took off. We needed something to have more confidence, but we were not able to change the dynamic of the first leg,” Ancelotti said.
Despite the defeat, Ancelotti said Real’s season still has plenty of possibilities, not least trying to bridge a four-point gap to La Liga leaders Barcelona.
“Now we are in the fight for La Liga. We have a disadvantage, but we have the Barcelona game, we have the Copa del Rey final, the Club World Cup, and we have to manage this part, which is another part of football that we are not used to,” he said.
“It’s time to hold our heads high and learn from our mistakes. It’s sad today, but I have absolutely no worries about how my players will respond. We’ll fight on, we’ll learn from the experience, and we’ll try to be better for the next match.”
-Reuters
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Arsenal snuffed out any chance of a famous Real Madrid comeback to reach the Champions League semi-finals after a 2-1 victory in the Bernabeu Stadium completed a 5-1 aggregate win on Wednesday.
Holders and 15-time winners Real never looked like clawing back a 3-0 deficit from last week’s quarter-final first leg, and when Bukayo Saka scored for the visitors in the 65th minute, their fate was effectively sealed.
Vinicius Junior seized on a rare defensive slip a couple of minutes later to rouse the home crowd, but it proved too little too late as Carlo Ancelotti’s side exited feebly.
Arsenal’s superiority over the two legs was underlined in stoppage time as Gabriel Martinelli burst through to score.
They will face Paris St Germain in their first Champions League semi-final since 2009.
“I think it’s such a special night for this club, it’s a historic night for this club,” said Arsenal’s Declan Rice, whose two sublime free kicks put his side in control last week.
“There was a lot of talk coming in about them coming back from the dead, they’ve done it so many times before. But we had so much belief and confidence from that first leg that we had enough to come here and win the game.”
A cacophony of noise greeted kickoff with the home fans fuelled by the hope of witnessing what would have been one of the greatest Champions League comebacks.
But Real’s knack of extricating themselves from difficult positions in a competition they won six times in the previous 11 seasons deserted them as they were comprehensively outplayed.
“Did we fall short of what we wanted in pure football terms? Perhaps,” Real captain Lucas Vazquez said. “They really are terrifically organised defensively.”
PENALTY MISS
Real needed a storming start, and Mbappe had the ball in the Arsenal net in the opening minutes but was offside when chesting in a Vinicius cross.
Arsenal were in no mood to simply sit and protect their lead, though, and Saka forced a great save from Courtois. They were handed the chance to kill off the tie when Raul Asencio needlessly hauled down Mikel Merino from a corner, and referee Francois Letexier eventually awarded a penalty after checking a pitch-side VAR monitor.
Saka opted for a Panenka-style chipped penalty, and Courtois clawed away the ball.
It looked like a potentially pivotal moment, and when Letexier pointed to the penalty spot at the other end after Kylian Mbappe tumbled under minimal contact from Rice, Arsenal’s night looked like taking a turn for the worse.
After five painstaking minutes, however, Letexier was again invited by VAR to view the monitor and to a chorus of whistles from the home fans, overturned his original decision.
That scare aside, Arsenal coped easily with Real Madrid’s famed frontline who were given little to work with.
Arsenal keeper David Raya was not required to make a save before halftime as Real’s predilection for hopeful crosses into the area proved easy pickings for the visiting defence.
Real’s Mbappe barely had a sniff of a chance as Arsenal showed great control and Saka made up for his first-half miss with a clinical finish after being sent clear by Merino.
William Saliba gifted Real a lifeline when he was caught in possession on the edge of his area, allowing Vinicius to score, but there was never any sense of panic in the visiting ranks.
Martinelli put the icing on the cake in added time, again from a Merino assist, to send Arsenal’s fans into raptures.
-Reuters
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