Barney Ronay on PSG's defeat
Sid Lowe was at the Bernabeu. His verdict of another historic European night at the famous old stadium is in. Click below for that ... and thanks for reading this MBM. Nighty night!
Poor Kylian Mbappé, who for the want of a few inches here and there, would have been celebrating a hat-trick tonight. But two of his goals were chalked off for offside, correctly so, after which point the entire Parisian edifice crumbled. Having dominated for most of the tie, they collectively Devon Loch-ed it along the final stretch, and a spirited Real Madrid, propelled by the genius of Karim Benzema and Luka Modrić, snatched the quarter-final place from under their nose. An abject capitulation by the visitors, who can file this latest one alongside Barcelona and Manchester United. Lionel Messi walks away from the crime scene with a blank look on his face, and he’s got some admin to do as well, popping this debacle next to Roma, Liverpool and Bayern Munich on his personal résumé. What an evening at the Bernabeu!
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FULL TIME: Real Madrid 3-1 PSG (agg: 3-2)
All hail 16-minute hat-trick hero Karim Benzema! What a sensational comeback by Real! But what a capitulation by PSG. They suffer another embarrassing exit from the Champions League. They’re making a habit of this ... as is Lionel Messi. What a game!
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90 min +4: Mbappe runs the ball out for a goal kick, and Real are so close now to the completion of an outrageous comeback.
90 min +3: Modric wins the ball in midfield, then Benzema takes the ball to the corner. The home fans crack out a few yelps of delight as the passes stick. You know the sort.
90 min +2: Vinicius is clipped on the halfway line and takes the opportunity to go down in the clock-management style.
90 min +1: In the first of four added minutes, Messi sends the free kick towards the top-right corner ... but it’s always heading over the bar. Huge cheers, for more than one reason as well. Oh Lionel.
90 min: Neymar romps into Real territory with options to his left and right. Before he can decide what to do, he’s fouled by Camavinga. Free kick, 30 yards out in a central position. Messi’s eyes light up.
89 min: PSG’s final roll of the dice: Draxler comes on for Hakimi. Modric then sashays right to left across the face of the Real box and aims a shot towards the top left. Inches wide and high. So close to wrapping this up.
88 min: Can Mbappe rescue this situation for PSG? He powers down the inside-left channel and is cynically checked by Vazquez, who goes into the book. Nothing comes of the resulting free kick.
86 min: Rodrygo batters the free kick into the wall, then slices the rebound well wide right. PSG are all over the shop. This is an astonishing turnaround and capitulation, even by their own historical standards.
85 min: Vinicius has the opportunity to put this tie to bed, but as he makes good down the left, he stands on the ball. Then Benzema has a run down the right. PSG just about hack clear. Then Kimpembe, who has just been booked, sticks out a leg to bring down Rodrygo. No second yellow, but a free kick in a very dangerous position.
83 min: Kimpembe is booked for throwing the ball into Vinicius’s chest in irritation, then barging him over. PSG have totally lost the nut. It’s a Champions League story as old as time.
81 min: PSG have to roll the dice now. Di Maria comes on for Danilo. Hakimi, his head gone, scythes through Vinicius and is booked for his trouble. You don’t need me to tell you that the Bernabeu is on a rolling boil. What an atmosphere! What a comeback this will be ... if they pull it of. Do PSG have a response? That Donnarumma mistake suddenly seems so expensive.
80 min: Not a great 12 seconds of action for Marquinhos, the ball deflecting off him for Benzema’s second, followed by the mistake for the third. Another famous PSG capitulation is on!
GOAL! Real Madrid 3-1 PSG (Benzema 78); agg 3-2
This is sensational! Simply sensational! There’s a pause as VAR checks the tie-equalising goal. It’s onside. A huge roar. Then another huge roar as Real snaffle the ball straight from the kick-off. Vinicius is sent scampering down the left again. Once again he’s swarmed. Marquinhos tries to clear, but only sends a flick across the face of his box towards Benzema, who steers an outrageous first-time shot into the bottom right from the edge of the box. That came 12 seconds after the restart!
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GOAL! Real Madrid 2-1 PSG (Benzema 76); agg 2-2
What a game this is! Modric runs from deep inside his own half, then releases Vinicius down the inside left. Vinicius is swarmed. He rolls across the face of goal for Modric, who plays a cute pass down the right channel to find Benzema, who spins and batters a shot past Donnarumma. We’re all level!
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74 min: Modric comes sliding in on Messi and wins a crunching, old-school, 1980s-style tackle. The home fans really enjoyed that. The erstwhile Barcelona man wears an inscrutable look as he picks himself up and dusts himself down, refusing to give the old enemy any more pleasure.
73 min: But that spirit’s far from sapped yet. PSG ship possession, the ball clanking around their own box and breaking to Vinicius, who leans back and hoicks over the bar when one on one with Donnarumma, six yards out! Then the visitors lose the ball again, Vinicius probing again down the left only for Rodrygo to run the ball out for a goal kick.
72 min: The free kick leads to a corner on the right. PSG opt to play it back down the flank and play some more possession football designed purposefully to sap the Real spirit.
71 min: PSG ping, ping, ping it around. Eventually Militao gets fed up and hangs a leg across Neymar who was attempting to break down the left. Before the free kick can be taken, PSG replace the booked Paredes with Gueye, a decision no doubt influenced by the former getting away with a clip on Benzema a couple of minutes ago.
69 min: PSG try to put the lid back on with some sterile possession in the middle of the park. They do a decent job, to be fair, and the home fans break out the irate whistles.
67 min: Some admin: Donnarumma was booked for arguing the toss about Benzema’s challenge that led to the mistake that led to the goal, while Real replace Carvajal with Vasquez.
65 min: Real win a corner on the left. Modric takes. It breaks to Carvajal, who sends a speculative drive into a packed box. PSG half clear it. A cross comes back in from the right. Vinicius flicks towards the bottom right. Donnarumma is all over it, and Militao was penalised for a shove anyway.
64 min: The roof of the stadium nearly flies off as Benzema meets a right-wing cross and sends a header inches wide of the top right. Donnarumma wasn’t necessarily getting to that, had it been on target. On the touchline, Pochettino quietly fumes at his team’s sudden loss of equilibrium.
63 min: Donnarumma claims he was fouled by Benzema, who certainly knocked him off balance. The striker was entitled to challenge for the ball with a shoulder charge, though, and forced the mistake. Game on! The Bernabeu explodes in excitement!
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GOAL! Real Madrid 1-1 PSG (Benzema 61); agg 1-2
Donnarumma gifts Real a goal, and the hosts are back in it! The PSG keeper faffs around having received the ball at his feet. Benzema presses hard. Donnarumma panics and shanks a weird ball across the face of his own goal. Vinicius retrieves it at the far stick, and rolls it back for Benzema, who slams home from close range. What a fiasco!
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60 min: Mbappe backs himself in a footrace down the left with Carvajal. He does this because he’s so obviously going to win it. Carvajal has little option but to cynically barge the troublesome Mbappe off the field of play. Yellow card. Mbappe is such a danger, Real will do well to end this game with 11 men.
58 min: Mbappe stays down, but happily there’s nothing seriously wrong with him and he’s back up soon enough. While he grabs a breather / gets the once-over from the physio, Real make a double change, replacing Kroos and Asensio with Rodrygo and Camavinga.
56 min: Mbappe is outrageous, like that’s telling you something you don’t know. He nearly power-glides his way clear, chasing a ball he’s got no right to get, squeezing between Militao and Alaba and into the box. Just as Mbappe prepares to pull the trigger, Alaba sticks out a leg to block bravely ... and brilliantly. That was the tie, right there.
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55 min: Vinicuis tries to deliver a sucker punch up the other end, but his shot bobbles fairly harmlessly through to Donnarumma.
54 min: Mbappe has the ball in the net for the third time this evening, but for the second time it’s ruled out! Neymar slips him free down the inside left. He enters the box, sells the committed Courtois an outrageous dummy, and having shuffled past the stricken keeper to his left, whistles the ball into the unguarded net. What skill! Unfortunately he was a mile offside. That was one hell of a bodyswerve, though.
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52 min: Modric strokes a cute pass down the left channel for Asensio, who wins the first corner of the second half. Kroos hits a long diagonal towards Valverde, who attempts to complete the Scholes-Beckham / De Bruyne-Mahrez routine from the best part of 30 yards. He catches his volley well, but he’s way too far out to make it count. PSG block and clear.
51 min: Neymar is bowled over by Militao, who earns himself a talking-to from the referee.
49 min: Vinicuis cuts in from the left, a spurt of pace that catches PSG unaware. He slips a quick pass down the channel for Asensio, who looks to take a touch and shoot on the penalty spot, but Kimpembe was wise to the grift and toe-pokes away just in time. Decent move by Real, nevertheless.
47 min: A fair bit of PSG possession, and a lot of Real chasing. A pattern could be set early.
PSG get the second half underway. No changes at the break. “One of the many, many joys of watching Mbappé when he’s on song, is how simple his play is,” begins Kári Tulinius. “It’s not that he’s not capable of doing the complex stuff, but he usually chooses the simplest way. There was a moment, before he scored his goal, when he slowed down for a split second, as if thinking: ‘What to do now? I think I’ll just thump it.’ And he thumped it.”
Half-time entertainment.
HALF TIME: Real Madrid 0-1 PSG (agg: 0-2)
Some worrying head tennis from a Real viewpoint, as it’s in their own box. Courtois eventually snaffles, and the whistle goes. Kylian Mbappé, hotly tipped to join Real in the summer, has pushed them towards the Champions League precipice. A reminder that away goals don’t carry an extra tariff any more, so Real just need the two to send this to extra time and possible penalties. But the balance of play suggests PSG are more likely to widen the gap and finish the job. Big half-time team talk coming up for Carlo Ancelotti.
45 min: Marquinhos creams a pass down the inside-left channel for Mbappe, who flicks insouciantly inside for Messi. For a second, it looks like Messi is preparing to inflict more hurt on Real from the edge of the box, but he can’t quite sort his feet out. There are two more first-half minutes for Real to survive, at which point they can simmer down and regroup.
44 min: Vinicius is booked for arguing the toss. Madrid could do with hearing the half-time whistle and clearing their heads.
43 min: Nacho is booked for a cynical clip on Hakimi, who was barrelling into space down the right.
42 min: From the corner, Modric has a dig from distance. Straight at Donnarumma. Easy pickings.
41 min: Real try to respond quickly, Asensio curling in low from the right to win a corner off Kimpembe. Before the set piece can be taken, there’s a petulant rumble in the box. Paredes, on a yellow, foolishly decides to get involved, and is hauled away from the melee by his keeper Donnarumma. Everything calms down quickly enough.
GOAL! Real Madrid 0-1 PSG (Mbappe 39); agg: 0-2
Neymar latches onto a loose ball in the middle of the park and whips a first-time pass down the inside-left channel to release Mbappe. He’s away. He opens his body, gives Courtois the eyes, feints to shoot for the bottom right, but slams into the bottom left instead. That had been coming.
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38 min: Replays show Mendes wasn’t as far offside as it initially looked to the naked eye, so fair’s fair ... but offside he nevertheless was.
37 min: Kroos crosses from a deep position on the right. Benzema rises highest, 12 yards out, and sends a diagonal header across Donnarumma and wide of the right-hand post. If that was on target, the keeper was beaten.
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35 min: ... and it’s almost immediately wiped out as Valverde crosses from the right, Benzema flashing a header straight at Donnarumma from close range. Anything either side and the scores were surely level on aggregate.
34 min: Not for that long, it would seem! Mendes is sent scampering clear down the left. He reaches the byline and cuts back for Mbappe, who batters a shot into the bottom left, Courtois beaten by power. But the flag immediately goes up for offside, correctly so, Mendes having needlessly gone too soon. He was looking across the line and had acres of grass in front of him. PSG’s lead remains just the one.
33 min: This is all Paris at the moment. A lot of probing going on in the Real final third. The hosts are holding firm, but for how long?
31 min: Messi channels some of the old magic, dribbling across the front of the Real box, right to left, then one-twoing down the channel with Neymar. Messi draws Courtois and floats a chip over the keeper ... but it’s always going across the face of goal, and never sailing into the bottom right. That would have been some goal.
29 min: Mbappe and Messi combine down the right. They nearly open Real up with a clever one-two, but control is lost at the crucial moment.
27 min: Messi, quarterbacking from deep, nearly slips Neymar away down the inside-left channel. Neymar is denied by a last-ditch hook away by Carvajal. Real go up the other end. Marquinhos attempts to clear with a cute backflick but nearly tees up Alaba, then makes a little bit of contact in attempting to clear up his own mess. No threat of a penalty, though.
26 min: The ball breaks to Benzema, 25 yards out on the left. He opens up his body and sends a power curler towards the top right. It’s heading in ... or maybe hitting the post ... but Donnarumma gets a fingertip to the ball and turns it around for a corner. Nothing comes of the resulting set piece. That was sensational football all round, though.
24 min: PSG are beginning to dominate possession. Mbappe bustles down the left, and slips infield for Neymar, who shuttles further across the face of the box to Messi. The space for a shot doesn’t quite open up.
22 min: Messi, Paredes and Neymar triangulate nicely down the middle. The latter takes a touch on the edge of the box and looks to thread a shot into the bottom right. He doesn’t quite catch it and it’s an easy enough snaffle for Courtois.
20 min: Neymar drops a shoulder to the left of the Real D and attempts a curler. It’s blocked. The ball breaks back to Paredes, who lashes a dismal long-range effort deep into the stand.
18 min: Mendes is back up, and play is underway again.
17 min: Mendes is down, having been nudged from behind by Asensio. There didn’t look a whole lot in the challenge, though Mauricio Pochettino isn’t happy and exchanges views with the fourth official.
15 min: PSG, settling a little now, come again. Neymar slips a ball down the left for Mendes, whose cross evades everyone in the middle. These attacks have done a good job of quietening the home fans down a bit.
14 min: ... and yet they could already have two goals. Mbappe breaks clear of Militao down the left again; Courtois parries the resulting shot at his near post once more. “Neymar sprinting back to remonstrate on five minutes is a good sign for PSG,” writes Espen B. “I’ve never before seen him run back to help out defensively.”
12 min: A long pass down the left nearly releases Vinicius. Donnarumma is forced to tear out of his box to knock the ball out into touch. Nothing comes of the throw, but Real come again, Vinicius down the same channel. He can’t quite beat Hakimi, who having stepped across Vinicius to take control, stops the ball on the byline instead of shepherding it out. Vinicius nearly makes off with the ball again as a result. PSG eventually clear. The visitors have been a little skittish in these opening exchanges.
10 min: Paredes will miss the first leg of the quarter final now, should PSG make it through tonight. A really strange, costly and pointless loss of noggin. “There is something very very snazzy about this version of the PSG kit – it says understated, elegant and tasteful. In other words an exceptionally poor fit with the club.” Charles Antaki, ladies and gentlemen. Other opinions are available on the internet.
8 min: PSG continue to rail at the referee, and eventually Paredes talks his way into the book. Perhaps they’ll be calmed by their first attack of the evening, Mbappe tearing down the left and shooting low from a tight angle. Courtois snaffles easily enough.
6 min: Kroos’s delivery is uncharacteristically dismal, failing to beat the first man.
5 min: Vinicius runs down a cul de sac on the left. He’s going nowhere, but is stupidly shoved in the back by Danilo. A free kick in a dangerous position. PSG surround the referee, livid to a man, which is preposterous really. A no-brainer of a decision.
4 min: Space for Vinicius down the left. He hooks into the centre for Asensio, who attempts a spectacular bicycle kick from 12 yards. The effort is easily blocked. An impressive start by the hosts.
3 min: Yep, he’s fine to continue. Real have clearly been sent out with a no-nonsense set of instructions. A couple of their players wave their arms at the crowd, motioning them to make even more noise. The denizens of the Bernabeu respond accordingly.
2 min: Real have come flying out of the blocks all right. They’ve also come crashing into each other, Militao and Kroos leaping into each other at full pelt. Militao comes off worst, and is helped off the field momentarily, but it looks as though he’s merely winded and will be good to go very soon.
Real get the party started. A long ball’s hoofed forward in an attempt to catch PSG out. It’s overcooked and Donnarumma gathers easily. But Real come straight back at PSG, Vinicius finding a bit of space down the right and crossing low and hard. Asensio can’t trap on the penalty spot, and the chance for a lightening start is gone.
The teams are out! Real wear meringue white, PSG first-choice blue with red trim. The Bernabeu is bubbling, despite it being a cloudy and cool night in Madrid. We’ll be off once they’ve swapped pennants and Zadok the Priest has suffered his usual Uefa-infused indignity.
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Here’s how both teams got to where we are today. Real Madrid breezed through Group D eventually, though they were given a shock on matchday two by Sheriff Tiraspol, the Champions League newcomers winning 2-1 at the Bernabeu ...
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Real Madrid | 6 | 11 | 15 |
| 2 | Inter Milan | 6 | 3 | 10 |
| 3 | Sheriff | 6 | -4 | 7 |
| 4 | Shakhtar Donetsk | 6 | -10 | 2 |
... while PSG were pipped to Group A by Manchester City ...
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Man City | 6 | 8 | 12 |
| 2 | PSG | 6 | 5 | 11 |
| 3 | RB Leipzig | 6 | 1 | 7 |
| 4 | Club Brugge | 6 | -14 | 4 |
... all of which set up this mouthwatering tie, the first leg having been played three weeks ago at Parc des Princes.
Both teams had big injury worries coming into this crucial fixture; both have good news for concerned fans. Toni Kroos makes the Real Madrid starting XI despite worry over a hamstring, while Kylian Mbappé plays for PSG despite having taken a knock on his foot in training.
Real make two changes to the XI named at the Parc de Prince in February. Casemiro and Ferland Mendy are both suspended, so in come Nacho and Federico Valverde.
PSG make just the one alteration to their XI from the first leg. Neymar returns to the starting line-up at the expense of Ángel Di María, who drops to the bench.
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The teams
Real Madrid: Courtois, Carvajal, Eder Militao, Nacho, Alaba, Modric, Valverde, Kroos, Asensio, Benzema, Vinicius Junior.
Subs: Vallejo, Hazard, Marcelo, Lunin, Jovic, Lucas, Bale, Ceballos, Rodrygo, Isco, Mariano, Camavinga.
Paris Saint-Germain: Donnarumma, Hakimi, Marquinhos, Kimpembe, Nuno Mendes, Paredes, Danilo Pereira, Verratti, Messi, Mbappe, Neymar.
Subs: Michut, Simons, Navas, Icardi, Di Maria, Dagba, Wijnaldum, Diallo, Draxler, Kehrer, Gueye, Ebimbe.
Referee: Danny Makkelie (Netherlands).
Preamble (agg: 0-1)
PSG have the upper hand over Real Madrid in the historical head-to-head. They won their first couple of meetings: a spectacular comeback in the quarter-finals of the Uefa Cup in 1993 from 3-1 down to win 5-4 on aggregate, and a more serene aggregate victory of 2-1 at the same stage of the Cup Winners’ Cup 12 months later. But they took a proper thumping on the last one, a 5-2 aggregate victory for Real in the Champions League round of 16 in 2018. However, throw in a 3-0 home win in Paris the groups in 2019, plus a late two-goal comeback to force a 2-2 draw in the corresponding fixture at the Bernabeu, and on balance this is a rivalry that has favoured the French.
They also go into this round of 16 second leg with a 1-0 advantage after Kylian Mbappé scored in the 94th minute in Paris three weeks ago. However they have a history of Champions League capitulations, most notably against Barcelona in 2017 and Manchester United two years later. They’ve also lost two of their last three games. Real Madrid by contrast have won their last three, and boast an historic upper hand of their own, 13 titles to PSG’s zilch, and everyone at the Bernabéu will throw themselves into this match with the confidence of a club that has seen and done it all before. It’s balanced rather deliciously, in other words. Kick off is at 9pm at the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, 8pm GMT. It’s on!
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