Paris Saint Germain beats Barcelona 1-4 at the Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium, overturns the 2-3 of the first leg and gains access to the semi-finals. The Catalans took the lead in the 12th minute with Raphinha, whose goal seemed to close the game as soon as it had begun, but Araujo’s expulsion for a foul on Barcola reopened the game in the 29th minute.
The French dismantled the Blaugrana’s lead piece by piece and reduced the poker with Dembelé in the 40th, Vitinha in the 54th and Mbappé’s brace, first from a penalty in the 61st and then with a conclusion under the crossbar in the 88th. In the semi-finals, PSG will face Borussia Dortmund who, after losing 2-1 in the first leg against Atletico Madrid, turns the result around and wins 4-2 in the return match.
The first half
In the 12th minute Lamine Yamal attacks the ball at his foot, goes past Mendes, reaches the byline and passes it to Raphinha who puts it in: Barcelona ahead.
In the 28th minute Mbappé shoots from inside the area, Ter Stegen saves for a corner.
A minute later Barcola is on the run, Araujo stops him just outside the area and the referee sends him off: the Catalans are outnumbered.
At PSG’s 40th counterattack, Vitinha serves Barcola on the left, low shot for Ousmane Dembelé who scores: equalizer for the French.
The second half
At the 54th corner for PSG, Dembelé’s suggestion for Hakimi, assist for Vitinha, shot from outside the area into the corner: the visiting team reverses the result.
Two minutes later the referee sends off Barcelona coach, Xavi Hernandez.
Shortly afterwards Dembelé goes forward on the right, is about to leave the area but Cancelo overwhelms him and the referee whistles for the penalty. Powerful conclusion from Mbappé, Ter Stegen can do nothing: PSG still scores in the 61st.
In the 89th PSG counterattack, Hakimi’s pass to Mbappé, his shot is blocked by Ter Stegen who also saves himself from Asensio’s shot, Mbappé shoots into the net again and scores the final 1-4.
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Mbappé converts the penalty
Almost all Romanian refereeing team, Istvan Kovacs directs the match, assisted by assistant referees Vasile Florin Marinescu and Ovidiu Artene. Fourth official Horatiu Fesnic, at Var there are the Germans Marco Fritz and Bastian Dankert.
