Xavi’s Barcelona took matters into their own hands as they came from behind to defeat PSG 3-2 in the UEFA Champions League (UCL) quarterfinal first leg in Paris. The win is one that the Blaugranas have had to wait for almost a decade, as their last victory at the Parc De Princes against PSG in the competition came in 2015 when they last won it.
In 2017, Barcelona lost to PSG 4-0 on the same ground, and they needed to do the famous ‘Remontada’ at Camp Nou to move to the next round. This time around, they took matters into their own hands and almost took the lead just 20 minutes in as Nuno Mendes cleared on the line to prevent Robert Lewandowski from opening the scoring with a header.
Raphinha also saw his low drive palmed away by Gianluigi Donnarumma, and the Brazilian continued to cause problems for the French side. He opened the scoring eventually when he was on the ground to smash in from Lamine Yamal’s cross, which was fumbled by Donnarumma, leaving Raphinha.
17-year-old Pau Cubarsí held strong in defense and was a handful for Kylian Mbappe, who didn’t exactly do alot for his side upfront. This changed in the early minutes of the second half when PSG equalized less than five minutes in.
The hosts needed a string of errors from Barcelona as Ronald Araujo’s poor attempt at a clearance was utilized well by Ousmane Dembélé to equalize while Vitinha put the hosts in the lead for the first time in the game.
It could have been a third goal had Bradley Barcola found the back of the net when he hit the crossbar. Substitute Pedri’s looped ball over to Raphinha provided an equalizer for Barcelona, and the game was won with an Andreas Christensen header from İlkay Gündoğan’s corner.
The second leg will happen at the Olympic stadium in Barcelona next week, with Barcelona leading 3-2 from the first leg result on Wednesday (yesterday).
Daniel Ademiju Idowu
