Here’s Sid Lowe’s report from the Reale Arena.
Here’s those Mbappé goals.
𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐋𝐘 𝐊𝐘𝐋𝐈𝐀𝐍 𝐌𝐁𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐄 ⚡️
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) March 5, 2024
The forward makes it 4⃣5⃣ goals and 2⃣6⃣ assists in just 68 #UCL games! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/6KwgLpU9Mb
Signature near post finish from Kylian Mbappe 😮💨🇫🇷#UCL pic.twitter.com/QzZXVjl1os
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) March 5, 2024
Full time: Real Sociedad 1-2 PSG (1-4 agg)
Mbappe made it 46 Champions League goals with his double here. He was the outstanding player on sheer talent alone. La Real had no answer, or at least until it was far too late. Will PSG present a threat to any of the elite? Yes, if Mbappe is given the same space and is in the same mood.
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90+5 min: Is that Mull of Kintyre from the home fans? It sounds like it. It’s all over, anyway as Traore and Mbappe embrace,
90+3 min: Mbappe isn’t done, and slides in a fine pass to Vitinha, who took one touch too many. Then he and Traore have a heated discussion.
90 min: The last five minutes will be played out amid riotous celebrations and sing songs in San Sebastian. Because: why not?
Goal! Real Sociedad 1-2 PSG (Merino, 89) (1-4 agg)
Donnarumma can only palm the ball into the path of Merino who then smashes goalward. Consolation, not really but reward for the way La Real have played in the second half.
Updated
87 min: Mbappe has switched wings but is offside. He wants a hat-trick, and a kiss-off, very possibly, to the boss who took him off last Friday at Monaco.
85 min: Mbappe is in space but his first touch is ropey. He then redeems himself with a no-look exchange with Vitinha but they fail to get Lee away. La Real will have known what might happen with Mbappe but they have no answer to him. Three goals in this tie.
83 min: Zubimendi’s day is done, too, and on comes a youngster in Olasagasti.
82 min: Frenetic pace for a tie that is only heading one way. Dembele takes his leave, and Kolo Muani is on for him. Soler on, as Hakimi goes off. Both players were on yellow cards.
81 min: Chances at both ends. Was Zaire Emery fouled? It seems he was offside first of all.
79 min: Donnarumma makes a fine save from Turrientes and the ball is hacked clear. PSG will feel they have been in a contest, even though they have issued out a right gubbing.
77 min: Zubeldia and Oyarzabal off for Sociedad, Silva one of those coming on with Pacheco. Manuel Ugarte is on for Fabian Ruiz.
76 min: PSG asked to defend plenty of corners. At 4-0 down in the tie, La Real have been inspired. This time, Zubeldia and Zubimendi both go close, the latter shanking the ball over the bar.
74 min: Andre Silva is coming on soon for La Real.
72 min: Donnarumma seems to have played himself into trouble and La Real come tearing at him. Oyarzabal attempts to lob the eight-foot Italian and he claims with ease, Kubo was the easy ball. The ball ignored, of course.
70 min: A look at that offside goal. Barrenetxea was fractions off. This can be a cruel game.
69 min: Where was this La Real? PSG have gone a bit milky. As they can do, and as has cost them so often. Surely not now. Hakimi has an effort at the other end for PSG. Then Mbappe is tackled – he is human, after all – and La Real go again.
67 min: PSG have gone ragged. Maybe being four goals down gives them the hives. Merino gets a shot in, and fires wide.
65 min: Ola?! Have Real Sociedad scored? The ball is in the net from a header from Barrenetxea – but offside. Onside this time around is Oyarzabal but he can’t force his shot home. La Real have woken up. Too late, even if is PSG.
61 min: Some changes made by La Real: Barrenetxea, who wasn’t fit to start, and off goes Becker. Turrientes replaces Mendez.
Nuno Mendes is off – yellow card protection – and Mukiele on.
57 min: Mbappe looking the real deal here. Though Sociedad have been rather less than that. A word for the assist from Lee, he’s quite the talent. Mbappe though, there’s nobody else in the game who can do that. Not even Haaland.
Goal! Real Sociedad 0-2 PSG (Mbappe, 56)
Watch that man again. Just what he’s been waiting for. Right from the halfway line, Mbappe is sent through and just when Remiro looks for the Thierry Henry floating finish, it’s arrowed into the near post.
Updated
54 min: Oof, Dembele took a bad one from Zubeldia and that’s a yellow card is conceded.
53 min: Mbappe is the key man here, always waiting to lead the counter. He is so good and yet his Ligue 1 performances can drop to so little.
52 min: La Real try and add some zip and Mendes concedes a corner. Donnarumma punches away. It’s got to be said that Mendes, a player with a huge reputation in Portugal, looks a little accident prone.
50 min: Mbappe is striding around here, looking full of confidence. The Spanish press must be excited by what they’ve seen from their new man.
Updated
48 min: What can Real Sociedad find here? Lee is another issue for them, a really speedy player. And he gets a shot in that’s blocked.
46 min: We are back underway: for PSG Barcola has been replaced by Lee Kang-in, the Korean. There was talk that Mendes was the man replaced, but the full-back must play on with a yellow card.
Half-time: Real Sociedad 0-1 PSG (0-3 agg)
The half closes out with Mbappe looking dangerous down the left, as he has all half and from where he scored the goal that seems set to push PSG into the next round.
Updated
45+4 min: Dembele becomes the third PSG player to pick up a booking. They are carried into the quarters so something to bear in mind.
45+1 min: Few positive signs for La Real as they approach the break. But they need so so so much more. Mbappe has all but killed off this tie.
45 min: Kubo, the Japanese forward, finds space and it arrows just wide. A decent effort as four minutes are added on.
44 min: Mbappe wins a corner but also complains his shirt had been pulled. Remiro punches it away, and for some distance. La Real can clear their lines after an offside.
42 min: Our friend Le Normand sets an attack in action, and Beraldo does well, before Kubo commits a silly foul in the PSG box to relieve the pressure.
40 min: La Real need half-time and their coach – Imanol Alguacil – has to pull off a miracle job to turn his team around. Hakimi meanwhile is booked for a loose tackle on Galan, his studs rather swinging.
38 min: Mild panic in the PSG area as Lucas Hernandez’s hack bounces back at him. The danger is averted soon enough. There’s too happening among the home team’s forwards. That was the case in the first leg, too.
36 min: Set piece for La Real, to be whizzed in. Barcola does his defensive dutoesd well and Donnarumma has an easy grab before Merino leaves a Lofthouse on him. Donnarumma is no Steve Sherwood, to continue to the Robin Hood theme.
34 min: Jamie Shaw gets in touch: “Robin Le Normand sounds like a great footballer. What a name. Doesn’t really matter if he’s sloppy or clumsy..the name makes up for that. I know absolutely nothing about him, never seen him play, but that’s just detail. Solid 8/10 tonight with a towering header to make the tie level in the 74th minute.
Sounds like a knight from the medieval era, a yin to Robert of Loxley’s yang, a French mercenary paid by the Sheriff of Nottingham to bump off the rebel gang.
31 min: Make no mistake, PSG have been excellent here. They’ve strangled their opponent in the same fashion Sociedad like to do to their opponents.
29 min: Meanwhile, Remiro is asked to save the tie with his toenail. Barcola sets off down the wing and across comes Mbappe, and bang. Good save from the La Real keeper.
28 min: Nuno Mendes gets a rather soft booking from Michael Oliver. There wasn’t much in that challenge…
27 min: The home fans are still noisy but frustration is boiling. Their team’s recent form has been unpromising.
25 min: La Real chasing shadows here, sadly. We’d prefer a better match than this, and PSG have actually been able to exert their superiority in a fashion beyond them in the home leg.
23 min: Mbappe cuts in, and Zubeldia fouls him. There was no other course of action available other than to swing and miss.
21 min: A glimmer for La Real! Becker through? No, there was an infringement in the buildup.
20 min: PSG have looked on it from the start. Their greater quality in attack has been the difference.
18 min: There’s a check of the goal. Nobody’s sure why. Michael Oliver is the ref, and he goes to the sidelines and can’t find one. Should have gone to Radio Rentals…ah, that’s the problem. The netting is being checked. There’s a hole in it. Did it go in? Yes, it took the net out. No ghost goal.
Goal! Real Sociedad 0-1 PSG (Mbappe, 16)
The big man has done it. He gets the ball right by the touchline and he holds the ball up, daring the defenders on before smashing the ball in. Too good. The tie over?
Updated
15 min: Zaire Emery, the teenager, is the one on the counter this time. PSG threaten to throw numbers forward again and again.
12 min: Becker down the flank, the former Union player robbed this time. PSG are not trying to sit on their lead; history dictates that’s probably a very bad idea.
10 min: Close for PSG and it’s all Mbappe, as he missiles to the byline, and Barcola’s flick is well saved by Remiro. Good save, and Mbappe looks to be up for this.
8 min: The corner doesn’t come to much; Merino, the Newcastle legend himself, tries to hook it back in but the ball is cleared.
Updated
7 min: PSG are pushing up, not letting La Real set the pace. Though it’s the regains they are known for, this new-fangled game when teams chase down mistakes. It nearly pays, too. Kubo’s cross is bundled behind.
5 min: Is 2-0 a dangerous lead for a team like PSG? Considering past history, then very much so. Here’s Mbappe’s first go, from an inside-left position, but he fires over.
3 min: La Real’s Traore has an injury, and it looks like a shoulder. It’s been put through its paces to check after a collision as he scampered along on the overlap.
1 min: Away we go, and the noise is very loud as La Real get after their opponents from the get-go. Will that unfamiliar defensive partnership hold for PSG? Let’s see, shall we?
Big noise greets both teams as they take to the field in San Sebastian, 40,000 Basques singing their hearts out for mutilak (the lads).
As kick-off approaches, a reminder of the first leg.
“Madre mía, what suffering! What a great team! What a way to compete! I don’t even want to think about the second leg,” was Luis Enrique’s post‑match verdict on opponents who pressed without fear but were picked off in a limb-weary second half by the high-craft of the Paris attack.
More on Mbappe here.
“It was 100% the coach’s decision. Sooner or later, we will have to get used to playing without Kylian Mbappé. It is my decision and one that I take with the objective of doing the best for the team … I don’t have a problem [with him]. It’s just a question of management and how best to manage the squad,” began Luís Enrique, who by the third successive question on the topic had become exasperated.
That team news: for La Real, Ander Barrenetxea is not fit enough to start. Sheraldo Becker starts instead. Mikel Oyarzabal is starting for the first time in over a month.
For PSG: no Marquinhos and Danilo as Nuno Mendes comes in, while Hernández comes in to partner Lucas Beraldo in central defence. Mbappe starts despite coming off at half-time on Friday against Monaco and sitting with his dear old mum.
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Quite the welcome for PSG, if not quite Anfield Road or Goodison Park. Let the pyro begin.
🔥 GOAZEEEN REAAAAL!!!#UCL | #WeareReal pic.twitter.com/GZ32TB2kDs
— Real Sociedad Fútbol (@RealSociedad) March 5, 2024
The teams
Real Sociedad: Remiro, Traore, Zubeldia, Le Normand, Galan, Mendez, Zubimendi, Merino, Becker, Kubo, Oyarzabal. Subs: Barrenetxea, Marrero, Gonzalez, Olasagasti, Tierney, Umar, Pacheco, Andre Silva, Turrientes, Magunazelaya, Marin, Aramburu.
PSG: Donnarumma, Hakimi, Lucas Beraldo, Hernandez, Nuno Mendes, Zaire Emery, Vitinha, Fabian, Dembele, Kylian Mbappe, Barcola. Subs: Gadou, Navas, Ugarte, Marquinhos, Goncalo Ramos, Danilo Pereira, Lee, Muani, Mukiele, Carlos Soler, Mayulu, Tenas.
Referee: Michael Oliver (England)
Preamble
It’s possible this could be the last 90 minutes – perhaps another 30 – of Kylian Mbappe’s quest to win the Champions League with PSG. Let’s be honest here, this is the plotline we are all considering here. In the first leg, the great man’s goal meant La Real have something of a mountain to climb, and a 2-0 deficit. They played well in Paris but lacked the quality in attack to pull off a famous win, and show old Kylian what he can expect to face when he’s a full-time La Liga player. The problem is they haven’t won at home since 26 November, and have collected just one victory from nine. So, a shock on the cards? You never know with PSG… you actually probably do but losing this one would be perhaps the most spectacular flop of all during l’affaire Mbapps.
Kick-off is 8pm UK time. Join me.
