And madness took hold of Santiago-Bernabéu … PSG already thought they had a few toes in the quarter-finals of the Champions League after their first leg victory (1-0) and Kylian’s opener Mbappé (39th) in Madrid, Wednesday March 9. But Karim Benzema turned the game around. Helped by the scuttling of the Parisians, the French scored a hat-trick in the last half hour to allow Real Madrid to win (3-1) in the round of 16 return.
>> Real Madrid-PSG: Mbappé as the only survivor, Donnarumma and Marquinhos sink … The notes of the Parisians
This defeat could leave traces in the club of the capital, which will not see the quarters of the C1 for the first time since 2019. Certainly less impressive than the comeback suffered at Camp Nou in Barcelona in 2017, it constitutes another blow on the back of the neck for PSG. She will sit prominently on the shelf of the most painful moments in her history in the Champions League, of those who will be in the minds of Paris for a long time when these deadlines come up again.
3 – Paris conceded 3 goals in 16 minutes and 41 seconds, a first in a Champions League match since March 8, 2017 against Barcelona (6-1). Reassembled. #RMAPSG pic.twitter.com/s0XpJppjji
— OptaJean (@OptaJean) March 9, 2022
The fantastic Kylian Mbappé had however largely shown the way to the quarter-finals for his team. His speed punished the Madrid defense positioned much higher than in the first leg. It was in this way, perfectly launched in depth by Neymar, that the French international opened the scoring with a powerful shot on the closed side (39th). PSG led 2-0 on the whole of the two games and, faced with amorphous spectators from the Santiago-Bernabéu, the Parisian qualification seemed inexorable.
It was without counting on a great Karim Benzema. The Habs scored a hat-trick and single-handedly overthrew Paris Saint-Germain. But what would have happened if Gianluigi Donnarumma had not made a huge mistake, the first since his arrival in the capital when he had just been installed as number one goalkeeper by Mauricio Pochettino? The timing couldn’t be worse.
We were playing the 61st minute when the Italian, too slow, pressed and jostled by Karim Benzema, missed his recovery. Vinicius transmitted to Benzema for the equalizer (1-1). Paris was still qualified but the merengue wave, pushed by an awakened public, was going to surge.
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The feverishness of the Paris defense, illustrated by Marquinhos and Presnel Kimpembe, resurfaced. Karim Benzema took advantage of this, as he knows how to do so well, to crucify the players of the capital. He doubled the bet on a nice serve from Luka Modric (76th) before scoring the qualifying goal just two minutes later (78th).
Real Madrid had certainly announced the color at the start of the match, during a difficult first quarter of an hour for the Parisians. The Spaniards had then instilled more doubt in the French defense than during the whole first leg.
However, Pochettino’s players knew how to react. Carried by a trio Mbappé-Neymar-Messi at the level of the stake, the PSG has long mastered the meeting thanks to its technical quality and the speed of its transitions. Kylian Mbappé even scored two goals logically disallowed for offside (34th, 54th). At the start of the game, he also came up against Thibaut Courtois twice (8th, 13th).
No one can blame the 2018 world champion for anything. Author of the only Parisian goal in the first leg, he repeated his performance tonight, in vain. It was the defense that sank on Wednesday at Real Madrid. PSG will still not win the Champions League. In 2022, all he has to do now is focus on Ligue 1.