UEFA Champions League
PSG CELEBRATE GOLDEN JUBILEE IN STYLE
Paris Saint-Germain coach Thomas Tuchel let out a scream of joy and relief at the full-time whistle on Wednesday.
It was both a sense of exhilaration and relief for the German, who despite leading the French giants to a domestic treble, was facing the axe had the club not progressed past Serie A side and Champions League debutants Atalanta.
Since the Qatari takeover in 2011, PSG have had four coaches, including Tuchel, and a fifth one looked to be on the cards as the clock signalled the 90th minute.
Atalanta, against all odds, were leading 1-0 courtesy of Mario Pasalic’s 27th-minute opener and fended off waves and waves of attacks by the Ligue 1 side.
PSG looked primed to fail on the biggest stage again and this time, against a side whose net spend since 2002 is still less than the combined €402 million (S$652 million) outlay on Neymar and Kylian Mbappe.
But as the final minute ticked down, Marquinhos fired home via a deflection off Mattia Caldara.
With the resistance broken, Mbappe then set up fellow substitute Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting for a stoppage-time winner, sparking wild scenes at the Estadio da Luz as Atalanta’s players slumped to the turf.
The intensity of Tuchel’s reaction was intensified by the fact that, with an ankle injury he picked up last week, he had been forced to sit on an ice-box and watch most of the game with his leg strapped in a “moon boot”.
Otherwise, the 46-year-old would have piled on his players in celebration as PSG reached the Champions League semi-finals for just the second time.
On sealing their first appearance in the last four since 1995, putting them within a shout of their maiden European Cup, Tuchel said: “Imagine what I would have done if I had two legs.
“Maybe today would be the day you would see me sprint for 40 metres. But it’s the club’s birthday today, exactly 50 years, so we will not forget this birthday for sure. It was absolutely deserved.”
The early curtailment of the French season in April due to the coronavirus pandemic left PSG with a lot of time to think and little action to prepare for the trip to Portugal – they had played only two competitive games since March prior to facing Atalanta – but Tuchel was full of praise for the heart shown by his players.
He said: “It was very difficult to prepare the team. There was no rhythm because there were no games, but I could feel in the last days that the determination, enthusiasm and effort of the group, the quality of the training and the mix between love and hard work, was exceptional.
“For me, it was a deserved win, but if you score so late, it was also luck – but I’m the first one to admit you need luck.”
But luck is also earned and in Mbappe, PSG had a devastating weapon off the bench and whose sheer pace forced the Italians onto the back foot.
The France forward was rated a serious doubt for the game, having suffered an ankle injury in July, but despite being only half-fit, his presence in the second half caused no end of problems.
Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini later called his introduction “decisive”, saying: “There was not long to go and it seemed we had done it, but when you play against some of the strongest in the world at a technical and athletic level, then it becomes tough.”
-AFP/Reuters
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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