Barcelona fought off Kylian Mbappe

Two more matches took place in the quarterfinals of the Champions League. In Paris, local PSG was defeated by Barcelona – 2:3. In Madrid, Atlético beat Borussia 2:1. But there is still intrigue between these pairs ahead of the return matches, which will take place next week.

Before the current meeting between PSG and Barcelona in the quarterfinals of the Champions League, it was difficult not to remember their epic confrontation seven years ago, only at an earlier stage of the playoffs of this tournament. Then the French giants, having defeated the Catalans at the Parc des Princes – 4:0, lost 1:6 at the Camp Nou and, accordingly, dropped out of the fight for the trophy. At that time, the Parisians did not yet have Kylian Mbappe, while Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez were shining at Barça. But, for example, in the 1/8 finals of the 2020/21 Champions League, already with Mbappe, PSG beat the blue garnets on their field 4:1, after which they played 1:1 at home and advanced to the next round. The main star of the red-blues in recent years scored four goals.

Now the presence of Mbappe also gave PSG, perhaps, a greater chance of success, because in today’s Barcelona there are no such “deciders”, and the once formidable scorer Robert Lewandowski is not as good as before. True, the Pole scored a couple of goals against Napoli in the 1/8 finals, and in general the Catalans have recently, according to their coach Xavi Hernandez, been showing their best football this season.

In the previous round, PSG trained against another Spanish club and confidently dealt with Real Sociedad. But Barca immediately made it clear that it would be much more difficult with them, and Raphinha almost ran away one-on-one with Gianluigi Donnarumma in his debut. The hosts’ goalkeeper managed to stop the threat far outside the penalty area. The Parisians, naturally, tried to attack more often through Mbappe, but he was closely guarded by his compatriot Jules Kounde, who was also backed up by Ronald Araujo. The star Frenchman tried to break through to the goal, and then unexpectedly freed the flank to left-back Nuno Mendes, and he even more unexpectedly produced an Mbappe-style performance when he subtly beat two opponents and even fired a shot that was blocked by Araujo.

Soon Mendes scored in his own penalty area. The Portuguese frankly saved PSG by knocking the ball off the tape after Donnarumma made a gross mistake on the way out during a corner and allowed Lewandowski to head it in. The Italian goalkeeper made amends when Rafinha fired into the bottom corner. But it seems that Donnarumma felt out of place and still made a scoring mistake. Trying to interrupt Lamin Yamal’s pass to Lewandowski, he hit the ball straight to Raphinha, and the Brazilian calmly hit the almost empty goal. Moreover, it cannot be said that Barcelona acted somehow illogically, only thanks to Donnarumma’s blunder. In the first half, she looked much more convincing and thoughtful. Xavi clearly outplayed the head coach of PSG and his friend Luis Enrique, under whose leadership he himself once played for Barça.

Visiting goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen was simply nowhere to be seen before the break, but who would have thought that by the 51st minute he would have to get the ball out of the net twice. And it wasn’t Mbappe who turned the match around. Although it was after his cross that Ousmane Dembele picked up the rebound, spun Frenkie de Jong and scored against his former teammates with a powerful shot under the bar. And while the Catalans were digesting what had happened, the hosts again penetrated into the penalty area, and Vitinha scored the second goal with a pass from Fabian Ruiz. Then Bradley Barcola hit the crossbar with a rebound from the palms of Ter Stegen. However, Barcelona did not crumble and found a worthy answer. Pedri flicked the ball behind the PSG defenders and Rafinha met him in the sweet spot with a beautiful volley.

It seems that the teams were inspired by the match between Real Madrid and Manchester City, which ended in a big draw 3:3. But Dembele hit the post, and Andreas Christensen headed in a corner when Donnarumma let the hosts down again, this time apparently in vain deciding not to intercept. The Parisians spent the end in constant attacks and still lost 2:3. Mbappe failed to score, but he will certainly have the opportunity to do so in the return match. With him, PSG’s chances for a favorable outcome are still not lost. Moreover, Barça’s captain Sergi Roberto and Christensen received disqualification cards.

In the confrontation between Atlético and Borussia, the home field factor was considered decisive. The Madrid team is exceptionally strong at their home Metropolitano, where at the start of the playoffs they even managed to perform a miracle, snatching a ticket to the quarterfinals from Inter. Dortmund put the squeeze on PSV at home after a draw away, and now they were also quite happy with this algorithm. But Edin Terzic’s team had to hold out in Madrid and contain the attacking tandem of Antoine Griezmann and Alvaro Morata.

Meanwhile, the guests scored a goal in the fifth minute when their goalkeeper Gregor Kobel gave a terrible pass to Ian Matsen, who was already covered by Koke. The Dutchman predictably lost the ball and Rodrigo De Paul easily opened the scoring. And Samuel Lino doubled it after a seemingly ordinary throw-out caused inexplicable confusion among the Borussia players, which was taken advantage of by Morata and Griezmann, who instantly set up their partner for the finishing blow. Dortmund gradually came to their senses and already in the second half put serious pressure on the opponent’s defense. Sebastien Halle reduced the difference, and Julian Brandt could even have gotten them a draw, but hit the crossbar in the final seconds. Nevertheless, a 1:2 defeat is a good result for Borussia before a home match.

Alexander Ilyin