France international Karim Benzema hit a 17-minute hat trick on Wednesday night as Real Madrid came back from the dead to beat Paris Saint-Germain and advance to the last eight of the Champions League.
Kylian Mbappé - who netted the only goal of the game in the first leg at the Parc des Princes on 15 February - opened the scoring at the Santiago Bernabeu after 38 minutes,
Like the goal in Paris, Neymar featured in the prelude.
Three weeks ago his slick back heel set Mbappé racing down the left wing and the 23-year-old's fleet feet disposed of Madrid defenders Militao and Vasquez before slotting the ball through the legs of the Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.
This time Courtois wasn’t quite so humiliated.
Mbappé simply duped him. The Frenchman shaped to shoot for the bottom right. But thumped the ball into the bottom left hand corner instead.
The strike gave PSG a 2-0 aggregate lead and a foothold into the quarter-final of the one competition their owners have spent billions of euros trying to win.
Turn
But the game turned just after the hour mark.
PSG goalkeeper Gigi Donnarumma failed to deal with a back pass and under pressure from Benzema skewed his clearance.
Vinicius retrieved it and rolled it back for Benzema to thrash in from close range.
Donnarumma claimed he was fouled by Benzema in the build-up but referee Danny Makkelie ignored his protests.
Worse was to follow for Donnarumma 16 minutes later. Luka Modric raced from his own half and passed to Vinicius who returned the compliment. As PSG tried to regroup, Modric eased the ball to Benzema who slotted in his second goal of the night and the aggregate leveller.
It also drew the 34-year-old level on 308 goals with Alfredo Di Stefano in the all-time Madrid scoring charts.
Comeback
And within 15 seconds of PSG restarting, they were behind. Madrid managed to win the ball and it went down the left to Vinicius who appeared to be crowded out.
But the ball skidded off the PSG skipper Marquinhos and into the path of Benzema who hit it first time into the bottom right corner of Donnarumma's goal from the edge of the penalty area.
After 168 of the 180 minutes, Madrid led for the first time. And Benzema had surpassed Di Stefano
It was an advantage they did not relinquish to the glee of the adoring faithful.
"We won a very difficult game, which got a lot more complicated after Mbappe's goal," said Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti.
"Once we scored the first goal ... from there everything changed. The fans pushed us and we believed more, more and more. It was a spectacular night."
Minutes after another PSG last-16 capitulation to rival the ones against Barcelona and Manchester United, the French sports newspaper L'Equipe carried the headline: "Irrationnel" on its online version.
Future
Questions over the future of the PSG head coach Mauricio Pochettino are certain to rise after the failure to shine in European club football's most prestigious competition.
The Argentine took the club to the last four of the tournament in 2021 and elimination in the last-16 is likely to represent regression for the PSG top brass who brought the then six-time Ballon D'Or winner Lionel Messi to the French capital with the express aim of smoothing the path to glory.
Pochettino, who has been linked with a return to the English Premier League and the job as Manchester United manager, blamed the match officials.
"Explaining what happened is easy. There was a foul on Donnarumma on the first goal, and that changed everything," Pochettino told Canal+.
"It's hard not to talk about this big refereeing error, which I don't understand and I won't forgive.
"I don't understand why the referee didn't call for video assistant referee. From then on everything changed in the stadium. Our players were upset, even if we must recognise that we made mistakes."
