PSG 1-1 Barcelona (agg: 5-2): Champions League – as it happened
10-Mar-2021 21:54:31 | The Guardian
- Mbappé opens scoring with questionable penalty
- Messi equalises on the night but then has penalty saved by Navas
Match report.
Related: Messi's penalty miss helps PSG sail through against Barcelona
Paris Saint-Germain are into the last 16. Another remontada never happened, but Barcelona did at least restore a measure of pride, though they will curse their wayward finishing. Messi landed one spectacular goal from distance but botched a penalty, while others, especially Dembele, fluffed other chances. PSG’s goal came courtesy of a lamentable penalty decision in their favour and they defended well in the second half; their brilliance was shown in the first leg. Barça have not been eliminated at this stage of the tournament since 2007.
90 min: Mbappe scorches downfield on the counter-attack, dupes Lenglet with a stepover and then finds himself face to face with the keeper. He goes for the blaster into the top corner .... but gets it all wrong, swiping the ball high and wide.
87 min: Danilo curtails a Barcelona attacks with an expert tackle on the edge of his own area, then launches a counter. Di Maria has teammates to his left and right, with Barcelona over-exposed .... but he bungles the through-ball.
85 min: Griezmann thwacks the ball high over the bar from the edge of the box after a flowing move by Barcelona. PSG are almost there ...
84 min: PSG substitution: Rafinha on, Verratti off.
81 min: PSG try to finally kill the game on the counter-attack. Mbappe slips it through to Icardi, whose finish from 16 yards is worse than anything even Demeble mustered today.
79 min: Barcelona substitutions: Braithwaite, Pjanic and Moriba on; Pedri, Dembele and Busquets off
77 min: PSG substitution: Florenzi on, Dagba on
75 min: Alba curls the ball across the face of goal. Diallo does just enough to prevent Dembele from prodding it into the net. The striker could have had a hat-trick today if he were just a little crisper.
74 min: Freekick to Barcelona near the left-hand corner of the PSG box after Florenzi shunts Messi to the grass. MEssi clips into the six-yard area, where Icardi heads it away.
72 min: Trincao skins Diallo and then thrashes a high ball across the face of goal. Alba reaches it way beyond the far post and sends it back into the danger zone, but PSG scramble it clear.
70 min: Twenty minutes left and Barcelona need three goals just to force extra-time. It seems preposterous ... but the way they’re playing, if they manage to get one soon. you sense anything could happen....
69 min: More fine last-ditch defending by Marquinhos, and Danilo, sabotages another dangerous attack by Barcelona. From the resulting corner Navas reacts smartly to bat away a near-post header by Busquets!
67 min: Messi becomes the first player to get past the impressive Diallo since the sub’s arrival, but then his cross drifts over the goal.
66 min: Barcelona substitution: Trincao on, Dest off.
65 min: Foxy skills by Pedri wide on the left, followed by a neat pass in-field. Barcelona work it to the edge of the area but then their attacks founders on solid PSG defending.
63 min: PSG enjoy a bout of possession in the opposing half. They don’t do much with it but they’ll be happy as long as they keep Barça down that end.
61 min: Dainty interplay by Barcelona ... followed by an almighty stramash in the box as Barça try to force the ball over the line. Marquinhos slides in to make a magnificent block on a shot by Messi from six yards!
59 min: PSG substitution: Danilo on, Gueye off, presumably because he has a yellow card.
59 min: PSG substitution: Di Maria on, Draxler off. The German had little impact on proceedings.
57 min: Marquinhos steps out of defence to intercept a pass by Messi.
55 min: at the start of this half PSG suggested they had been told by Pochettino to press much higher and quit retreating so deep. But that didn’t last long, because Barça have forced them back again.
53 min: Dembele makes another smart run and is picked out in the box. He manages to wriggle free of his marker and stick the ball across the face of goal, but too far in front of any teammates.
50 min: Gueye sees yellow for stamping on Griezmann’s foot in an ill-judged attempt to win the ball in midfield. Again, that’s symptomatic of PSG’s overall sluggishness compared to their opponents.
48 min: More solid work by Diallo, who again curtails a promising burst by Dest. But Barça are still sharper in most other areas of the pitch.
47 min: Diallo does well in his first involvement, showing composure to stand up and dispossess Dest , thus ending a threatening attack.
46 min: Pochettino has made a change during the break, introducing Diallo for Kurzawa at laeft-back.
BT have just shown a replay of Navas’s penalty save, showing the spotkick should have been retaken, because the ball was cleared after it came off the bar by Verratti, who was inside the D when Messi took the penalty. Weird thing is, VAR checked it at the time but didn’t spot it ... yet they gave a penalty earlier for an accidental off-the-ball mis-step.
“Having just seen that ridiculous decision it’s very clear that the problem with VAR is not the system, it’s English officials,” stormes David Singleton. “In the hectic Juve-Porto game yesterday VAR was hardly of note, and tonight English officials give a ridiculous penalty. The real question is, if Luiz was sent off for accidental contact in the box, which was apparently a stonewall penalty against Wolves, why wasn’t that a red card? Crap decisions are one thing, but the inconsistencies are staggering.”
What a half that was! It leaves us with plenty of reason to think this tie is alive, after all. Barcelona could have been level already but their finishing has been awry - except when Messi thundered one into the net from miles out -; Dembele has missed several chances, Dest had a shot pushed on to the bar and Messi had a penalty saved, and all after PSG had moved into a seemingly insurmountable lead thanks to a very lucky penalty. Pochettino needs to pull his players together at half-time because there could be bottling afoot here. Barça have hope...
45+2 min: The VAR check is finished. Play resumes with a corner to Barça, which is flicked on by Busquets ... and Florenzi clears off the line!
Navas goes the right way and turns Messi’s shoddy penalty on to the bar and out! Incroyable! But wait, there’s a VAr review afoot ....
Anthony Taylor points to the spot after Griezmann was caught in the box by Kurzawa, who was trying to clear a bouncing ball!
43 min: This is impressive from Barça, and alarming from PSG, who are on the rack, unable to gain a foothold in midfield and looking slower all over the pitch. Except when they manage to work the ball to Mbappe on a counter-attack, obviously.
41 min: Dembele lays the ball back from the byline to Busquets at the end of the area. The midfielder whacks it first time, forcing Navas into an awkward save with his knees.
39 min: Barcelona have their zest back now; they’re winning nearly every tackle and passing and moving at a clip that PSG are struggling to contend with. “I’m normally pretty agnostic when it comes to the never-ending debate concerning how rules are being interpreted and/or changed, particularly since the advent of the VAR, but that penalty decision was absurd,” seethes Brad McMillan. “If a player is deemed not to be interfering with play, they aren’t given offside, so it must surely follow that, if an innocent trip by a defender of an attacker who could not possibly have had any influence on that passage of play, no free-kick can be given?”
34 min: Barcelona substitution: with Mingueza on a yellow and perilously close to a red, Ronald Koeman opts for prudence and replaces Minguez with Firpo.
Wow! Messi enflames the ball into the net from over 25 yards! Navas was baffled by the power and swerve! Game on?!
33 min: Dembele fluffs another chance! On a night when Barcelona’s finishing needs to be perfect, Dembele has produced another weak shot after getting into an excellent position. If the striker’s markmanship was as good as his approach play, Barcelona would be right in this.
Mbappé slams the penalty into the top corner. setting PSG en route to the next round and, in the process, becoming the youngest player to reach 25 goals in the Champions League. It was a penalty for a technical infringement rather than anything sinister, but Mbappé took full advantage.
VAR rules that Lenglet brought down Icardi. The defender is booked, PSG have a chance to kill the tie....
29 min: There’s a VAR check for a penalty after Icardi went down in the box while trying to get on the end of a cross across the six-yard box. He was nowhere near it really - it flew straight into the keeper’s arms - but Lenglet seemed to tread on the back of his boot entirely accidentally off the ball.
27 min: Mingueza escapes a second booking after a sloppy challenge on Mbappé.
26 min: Mingueza booked for pulling bakc Mbappé to stop him racing on to a ball in behind from Verratti. No matter how well Barça are playing, PSG always have that simple but deadly counter-attacking option.
25 min: PSG are stretched again, and Dembele sends the ball across the face of goal for Messi .... who slides for it but his legs just aren’t long enough and the ball whizzes on out the other side of the box!
24 min: Barcelona fly down the right and slip the ball through for Dest, whose shot is tipped on to the bar by Navas!
22 min: Barça sense there are goals there for them. There’s a speed and intent to everything they’re doing, from their passing to the way they hurry to take corners and throw-ins. They believe. And PSG look like they’re starting to worry.
20 min: There’s a certain tentativeness about PSG”s defending - are they actually nervous? Barça are applying plenty of pressure and, indeed, would already be one-up if Dembele was in really clinical form.
18 min: Messi flights over a corner. Lenglet leaps high to head it ... but knocks it backwards with his arm instead. Please strike up that Champions League anthem, Monsieur Stadium DJ.
16 min: Mbappé collects another pass from deep and scampers towards the box again. This time he cuts on to his right foot .... but his shot from the edge of the box is a pea-roller, giving Ter Stegen a simple save.
15 min: PSG are defending deep as Barça look for openings. But when the visitors are dispossessed, the hosts how their counter-attacking zeal again, with Mbappé flying down the left, throwing a few lollipops and then clipping over a teasing cross. He was too fast for his own teammates, though, as none could get there in time to convert the cross.
13 min: A swift counter-attack by Barcelona finds Dembele, who again does everything right ... until the shot, which veers off towards the empty stands.
11 min: Dembele makes a clever run and is rewarded with a nice pass, but he doesn’t quite catch his shot right, leaving Navas with a comfortable save from 15 yards.
9 min: Messi slaps the freekick over the wall but it’s too high and sails over the bar, too. But PSG need to sharpen up; Barça are passing and thinking quicker at the moment.
9 min: Kurzawa catches Dembele with a late tackle just outside the D. That’s booking for the defender and a freekick in an inviting position for Messi.
8 min: Navas botches an easy kick-out, giving Barça a throw-in just to the right of the home box. Time to send up the big men from the back. Oh yeah, wrong club.
7 min: Barcelona are starting to probe dangerously around the PSG box. They’re getting lots of players into the area but have yet to find a really piercing pass. No mistaking their intent, though.
5 min: Draxler curls in a freekick from the left-hand touchline. Gueye gets his head to it but the connection is clunky and his shot doesn’t go close to the target.
3 min: Nice play between Verratti and Mbappé leads to a corner for Paris. But it’s badly delivered.
1 min: Barça kick off. They begin by stroking the ball gently around the back. As soon as they venture into the opposing half, Lenglet gives the ball away and PSG show their love of a counter-attack by tearing forward. It comes to nothing but that was a warning that Barça didn’t need of the danger of frittering away possession.
The teams are on the pitch. The Parc des Princes stands are, of course, empty. PSG are in their deep blue kit with one big red panel down the front of their shirt. Barça are sporting yellow with red scratch marks across the front, and crimson rings on their socks. Lovely.
“Barça comeback or not, PSG better not score a goal in opening minutes otherwise I would be very disappointed, along with millions of other futuristic fans, to see money go to waste for a match of 90 minutes when all needed was to subscribe to a 15 min starting slot,” storms Yash Gupta.
“Part of me wants Barcelona to somehow win 4-0 because who doesn’t like a preposterous comeback?” announces Adam Griffiths. “But the bigger, more childish part of me wants them to horribly, horribly self-destruct and lose 96-1 on aggregate. Just because. Football, do your stuff.” I recall a match a few years ago when Reading romped in front against Arsenal but wound up losing 7-5 and afterwards the Reading manager Brian McDermott suggested that 4-1 is always a dangerous lead ...
With Neymar and Moise Kean missing, Mauricio Pochettino has opted for Julian Draxler on the right-hand side of PSG’s attacks. That’s the only alteration to the side that started the first leg. Barça have made only one change too, with Minguez coming into central defence in place of Gerard Pique.
PSG: Navas; Florenzi, Marquinhos, Kimpembe, Kurzawa; Paredes, Verratti, Gueye; Draxler, Icardi, Mbappé
Hello and welcome to a sensational comeback or the continuation of a slow, embarrassing downfall. There’s really no call to use la remontada in an everyday conversation round these parts but if you really feel you have to, then best make sure everyone knows you’re talking about the time in 2017 when Barcelona recovered from a 4-0 first-leg walloping by PSG to win the second leg 6-1 and advance over the tear-stained bodies of the rivals. But that was at the Nou Camp and Barça and PSG were very different teams back then. Still, that memory is pretty much all Barça have going for them as they head to the Parc des Princes hoping to overturn the 4-1 plastering Kylian Mbappé & Co inflicted on them last month.
It’s true that Ronal Koeman has made a few minor adjustments since then and Barça’s domestic form has picked up a little but PSG, who are still without Neymar, can be confident of progressing. Rather than any remontada, chances are we could be looking at another emphatic away elimination for the once-great Barça, to go with last year’s 8-2 defeat by Bayern, the previous year’s 4-0 by Liverpool and the 4-1 at Roma the year before that. Oh, Barça!
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