Barney Ronay's match report
FULL TIME: Paris Saint-Germain 1-2 Real Madrid (agg 2-5)
That’s it! The 12-time European champions march on! They’re into the quarters, having dealt with PSG easily. Their dream of completing the first European Cup hat-trick since Bayern Munich managed it in the mid 1970s is still on! Meanwhile Paris Saint-Germain’s dream of their first Champions League must wait at least another year.
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90 min +3: A lot of flares going off right now. The PSG fans are going out with a bang, even if the players themselves are bowing out with a whimper.
90 min +2: Bale has a hammer from 25 yards. Areola fields it without fuss.
90 min +1: It’s not been Cavani’s evening, despite his goal. He’s found on the penalty spot by Dani Alves, but can’t sort his feet out to get a shot away. The earlier anger’s gone; it’s just dejection now.
90 min: Isco pearls one from distance, looking for the top right. Areola tips it round the post. The corner isn’t worthy of note. There will be four added minutes. PSG just wish it was all over right now.
89 min: The PSG supporters are still giving it their all. None of their players have performed tonight, but they’ve really contributed to a superb atmosphere. Trouble is in the post from Uefa regarding the flares, no doubt, but that’s not the point.
87 min: Vazquez performs a few Ronaldoesque tricks down the right, before larruping an effort high and wide. He earned the right.
86 min: Ramos has a rake from the best part of 30 yards. No! “What’s French for cohesion?” wonders Ruth Purdue. “This is actually a bunch of individuals.”
85 min: Cavani is booked for a late clip on Casemiro. He’s been on a rolling boil all night, so that was kind of inevitable. Diarra comes on for Mbappe.
83 min: The superb Vazquez slips Ronaldo free down the inside-right channel. Ronaldo slashes wide in looking for the top right. Factoring in his quality, he should have scored.
82 min: Isco comes on for Asensio. Kroos attempts a curler into the top right. Ronaldo shoots for the bottom left. Nearly, nearly.
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GOAL! Paris Saint-Germain 1-2 Real Madrid (Casemiro 80); agg 2-5
That’s that, then. Any remote hope of PSG fighting their way back into this tie are gone. Ronaldo races down the right. He slips it to Vazquez on the outside. Vazquez fizzes it into the middle. Rabiot hacks clear ... but only half clear. Casemiro takes up possession on the edge of the box. He shoots, and his effort deflects off Marquinhos, over Areola and into the net. Tie over.
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79 min: Real take a little of the sting out of the game by stroking it around the midfield awhile, utilising their extra man to run PSG ragged.
78 min: Ramos is booked for a late slide on Pastore in the midfield. It’s a fair decision, he can have no complaints. But he files one anyway.
77 min: Marcelo is sent scampering down the left by Asensio. His cross is deflected high into the air. Areola claims under pressure from Bale. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that this match will be an end-to-end nonsense from here on in.
76 min: Changes by both teams. Benzema is hooked and replaced by Bale. Meanwhile Draxler comes on for Di Maria.
74 min: Di Maria is robbed by Kroos in the centre circle. He feeds Benzema, who is alongside Ronaldo on the break. Real are two on one! Benzema opts to go it alone, but upon reaching the box hesitates before shooting. He tries to chip Areola, but gets it all wrong. What a waste! Imagine Ronaldo’s reaction! You can imagine it pretty accurately, can’t you.
72 min: Zinedine Zidane responds by sending on Kroos for Kovacic. There’s a pause before the restart, because the ref still isn’t happy with the flares being set off by the home supporters.
GOAL! Paris Saint-Germain 1-1 Real Madrid (Cavani 71); agg 2-4
But wait a minute! Di Maria makes down the left. He crosses deep. Dani Alves returns the ball into the centre from the right. Pastore stoops to head goalwards. There’s some pinball, and the ball clanks off Cavani, who doesn’t have much of a clue about what’s going on, but has a goal to his name anyway! Scrappy, but suddenly the ten men just need a couple more to take this to extra time!
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69 min: Real Madrid have one foot and four toes in the quarters already, but they nearly polished PSG off for good here. Benzema made off down the left and cut the ball back. The excellent Asensio met it first time, sweeping a shot onto the base of the left-hand post from 12 yards.
68 min: Benzema combines with Marcelo down the inside-left channel. The latter reaches the byline and cuts back for Vazquez, whose effort is blocked. The hosts go up the other end, Pastore slipping a pass down the inside right to release Cavani into the area. Navas comes out to block. Cavani goes over the keeper, and claims a penalty. Thing is, he was miles offside. The flag goes up, and PSG’s frustration keeps on rising.
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RED CARD! Verratti (PSG)
66 min: A second yellow for Verratti, He tangles with Vazquez in the midfield. He wants a free kick but isn’t getting it. He gets right up in the ref’s grille, and that’s a booking for dissent. And he’s off. What raging stupidity, with his team already in dire straits.
65 min: Marcelo sets Benzema off on a dribble down the left. Benzema tries to trick his way into the area, but only succeeds in confusing himself and sending the ball flying out of play for a goal kick. Shame for Real, because PSG were light at the back and Ronaldo was in the middle.
63 min: Real respond by taking a little of the sting from the game, stroking it around the midfield awhile. Then Vazquez shimmies, shakes his hips, and tries to Steve Nicol his way past Berchiche on the right. The Paris full back isn’t having any of it, sticks to him like glue, and eventually forces Vazquez out of play. Goal kick.
60 min: Pastore comes on for Motta. Berchiche glides down the left and crosses low towards the near post. Cavani nearly turns it in, but Navas isn’t to be beaten. The hosts are desperate, but at least they’re asking a few questions now.
58 min: Ronaldo dribbles into the PSG area from the left and goes over in the cheeky style. A light hand on the shoulder, but nope. He has the good grace to grin sheepishly as he gets back up. PSG go down the other end, Mbappe working hard down the inside-right channel and teeing up Cavani, whose attempted bicycle kick from 12 yards doesn’t quite come off.
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57 min: Asensio romps into acres down the left. His low cross into the PSG box is fairly aimless, but there’s a reminder that it won’t take much more for the champions to snaffle another away goal and put this tie beyond all doubt.
56 min: Di Maria wins a corner with another determined run down the left. He takes the set piece himself but Kovacic bangs a clearing header miles upfield.
55 min: Verratti bustles down the inside-right channel and tries to shuttle the ball on to Alves, but the flag goes up for offside. PSG have responded well to conceding.
53 min: PSG now need three goals just to force this tie into extra time. Mbappe tries to tee up Cavani in the middle, as he should have done on 43 minutes, but his cross isn’t all that, and he’s offside anyway. The home fans haven’t stopped singing, incidentally.
GOAL! Paris Saint-Germain 0-1 Real Madrid (Ronaldo 51); agg 1-4
And this is closer. Asensio bursts down the left, then checks back before playing a delightful reverse pass down the flank for Vazquez on the overlap. Vazquez loops deep. At the far post, Ronaldo rises like only Ronaldo can rise, and smacks a header down and past the helpless Areola!
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50 min: There’s quite a bit of smoke down the PSG end. Ronaldo flashes a shot just wide left from the edge of the box. Close!
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49 min: Finally the corner is taken. Di Maria’s delivery is met by Silva, but his eyebrows can only brush the ball well wide of the goal. PSG come again in the very next phase of play, though, Di Maria zipping down the left and pulling back to Cavani, who tees up Motta. Motta leans back and attempts a curler into the top left from the edge of the box. It’s miles over the bar. Dreadful. Half a chance.
48 min: ...well, we don’t know yet, because the PSG fans have let off a lot of flares, and the referee isn’t happy about it. There’s an extended faff.
47 min: On BT Sport, Rio Ferdinand suggested PSG needed to up their game, and come flying out of the blocks in this second half. Dani Alves tries to comply, with a burst down the right, but Ramos stands up to him. However, Di Maria comes again down the left, and earns a corner. From which ...
And we’re off again! Real get the party restarted. No changes. “Neymar would be proud of that non assist to Cavani by Mbappe,” deadpans Paul Fitzgerald.
Half-time highlights from the other game. It’s goalless at Anfield, too. Barry Glendenning has the latest from that one.
HALF TIME: Paris Saint-Germain 0-0 Real Madrid (agg: 1-3)
The whistle goes, and it’s as you were. PSG still need two goals to go through; Real still search for the away goal that’d make things even more difficult for their opponents. A dramatic second half coming up!
45 min: Di Maria floats one into the Real box from the right. Cavani has no chance of meeting it with his head, and the ball floats out for a goal kick. From the restart, Real faff about, and Navas clatters a dreadful clearance off the back of Cavani’s head as the striker closes him down. The ball flies well wide of the goal, but that could have gone anywhere.
43 min: Cavani is still fuming, but now it’s because Mbappe had been sent clear down the right, and instead of teeing one up for the man in the centre, the young chap’s had a go himself from a tight angle. His effort is saved. Cavani theatrically puts his head in his hands.
41 min: Dani Alves shapes to shoot. Instead he dinks the ball to Verratti on the edge of the PSG box. Verratti slips it right to Di Maria, who slams a low cross towards Cavani at the near post. Navas smothers and saves. Cavani is within his rights to at least go for the ball, but you know how these things always pan out. There’s some pantomime shoving, but nobody’s hurt and we all move on.
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39 min: From the corner, Casemiro has a whack from distance. Nope! But that’s been a good couple of minutes for Real, who have responded well to a brief period of PSG pressure.
38 min: The best chance of the match so far, and it’s so simple. Marcelo curls a glorious pass down the left wing to release Benzema into acres. He’s one on one with Areola as he enters the area, albeit from a slightly prohibitive angle. The Paris keeper makes himself big and turns Benzema’s shot into the side netting.
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36 min: Benzema buzzes down the left and earns another corner for Real. This one’s taken short, and is a total waste of time. PSG clear. But Real come back at the hosts again. Ronaldo teases them down the left, before switching the play to Vazquez on the right. Another corner. And that one comes to nothing as well. The defences well on top at these set pieces.
34 min: PSG are pressing Real back a bit. Di Maria bustles and hustles on the right. He wins the ball and fizzes it through the Real box. There’s nobody in deep blue and red making a run, taking a chance. Di Maria looks frustrated, and he’s got a point.
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33 min: Di Maria whips to the near post in the hope of finding Cavani. Casemiro nips in to intercept, and is shoved in the back by Cavani, an idiotic challenge which releases the pressure on Real, who hadn’t yet cleared.
32 min: The referee is interested in booking Kovacic, though. He slides into the back of Di Maria as the former Real winger makes good down the right. A no brainer of a decision. And a free kick in a very dangerous position, just to the right of the Real area.
31 min: Ronaldo dribbles at pace down the left and runs slap-bang into Dani Alves. He wants a penalty, as the coming together occurred just inside the area, but come off it. The referee’s not interested.
30 min: A long ball lumped down the middle by Rabiot. It’s a proper old-school hoof, and it nearly catches Real out as Di Maria brings it down and battles his way down the inside-right channel. His attempt to hook the ball into the centre for Harford Cavani is deflected into the arms of Navas. Reeptastic ... and there’s nothing wrong whatsoever with mixing it up a bit.
28 min: A period of pretty possession for Paris ends when Mbappe cuts in from the left and curls towards the far stick. A shot or cross? Difficult to say. It evades Di Maria, coming in from the other side, and sails well wide of the right-hand post. But that was a controlled period of play from the home side, who were pinging it around in the triangular fashion.
26 min: Mbappe tries to do something about it, with a distinctly unscrappy dribble down the middle. His power run is brought to an abrupt halt by Casemiro, 25 yards out. Free kick, which Di Maria takes. It’s deflected over the wall for a corner on the right. The set piece is launched into the mixer. Silva challenges for it. Ramos wins the battle.
24 min: Vazquez turns on the jets along the right wing. He feeds Carvajal on the overlap. Carvajal pulls one back. Vazquez battles for it, and concedes a free kick. It’s gone scrappy again.
22 min: The first lull of a hectic evening. You wouldn’t know it by listening to the crowd, who are still giving it plenty.
20 min: Verratti is booked for stretching into a tackle and clipping Casemiro on the ankle. He can have no complaints, it was a poor, mistimed challenge, though he might want a word with Di Maria, whose loose pass caused the problem in the first place.
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18 min: From the ridiculous to the sublime by Ronaldo, who one-twos wonderfully with Vazquez down the inside left. He can’t latch onto the ball in the box, but it breaks to Benzema on the penalty spot. Benzema shoots, but it’s deflected over. From the corner, Ramos sidefoots powerfully from close range, but Areola gets down marvellously to save. Vazquez hooks the rebound out of play. So nearly a crucial away goal for the champions.
16 min: Ronaldo is stopped in his tracks by Dani Alves down the left. Frustrated, he takes a kick out at the PSG full back. Luckily for him, he doesn’t make contact, because the referee would have had quite the decision to make had boot connected with flesh. That was very daft.
Photograph: Pierre-Philippe Marcou/AFP/Getty Images
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14 min: The noise hasn’t stopped for a second at the Parc des Princes. This is what European football is all about. Mbappe zips down the right and looks for Cavani in the middle. His low cross is clanked out for a corner, which ... yeah.
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12 min: Di Maria earns PSG’s first corner of the night. He takes it, from the left. That one’s not very good, either. Real tear up the other end on the break. Asensio, on the left, finds Ronaldo in acres on the opposite flank with a spectacular crossfield rake. Ronaldo shuttles the ball inside for Benzema, whose shot from the edge of the box is deflected out for a corner ... which is no good. A nice, open feel to this game, but the set pieces aren’t much to write home about. So far.
10 min: Asensio strides down the left, and loops a cross into the centre. The ball takes a massive deflection off Carvajal, and for a second looks like looping over Areola on an absurd arc and into the top right. But the keeper handles with great confidence on the line as he backtracks at speed.
9 min: The first corner of the game as Lucas Vazquez tears down the right. He takes it himself. It isn’t up to much. This is all very hectic, and there’s not much shape to it. But both teams are on the front foot. Did anyone expect it any other way?
7 min: Di Maria crosses from the right. A rabona. Up the other end, Ronaldo is nearly sent clear down the right after instigating a one-two with a cheeky backheel inside to Vazquez. It could be that sort of game.
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5 min: Berchiche snaffles possession in the midfield, and from the left-back position romps diagonally, exchanging passes with Cavani and very nearly bursting into the box down the inside-right channel. Again Ramos is wise to the grift, shepherding the ball back to Navas.
4 min: Still a bit scrappy. Motta launches one long in the general direction of Cavani, but Ramos is wise to the move, and heads clear.
2 min: All a bit scrappy in the early stages. Both teams have a stroke of the ball. A lot riding on this; it might take a while to settle down.
And we’re off! The hosts get the ball rolling. Smoke wafts across the pitch, a couple of firecrackers having gone off. It’s a glorious European atmosphere.
Before kick-off, there’s a minute’s silence in memory of Davide Astori. The Fiorentina captain tragically passed away in his sleep on Saturday night. It’s perfectly observed, bar the interjection of one or two desperate types. Ignore them. Thousands of good people do exactly that, drowning them out with warm, respectful applause. RIP Davide.
The teams are out! There’s an astonishing atmosphere in the Parc des Princes tonight, as you’d expect with everything on the line. One of the pre-tournament favourites is going out this evening. The home heroes play in their first-choice kit: les Rouge-et-Bleu. The reigning European champions, meanwhile, are los Blancos. We’ll be off before you know it! Meanwhile here’s Matt Burtz: “I went to Youtube to check out the PSG-Real Madrid highlights from 1993 and I think you may have even undersold the comeback PSG put together. Their second and third goals were scored in the 80th and 87th minutes to take a 3-0 lead that would have been sufficient to progress, but Real responded with a tie-equalising goal from Ivan Zamorano four minutes into stoppage time. Enter Antoine Kombouare, who thumped a towering header into the net from a free kick SIX minutes into stoppage time to send PSG through. Me, I hope PSG wins it 2-0 in undramatic fashion today.”
Pre-match reading. Here’s our man Paul Doyle on why PSG boss Unai Emery is currently nursing a quadruple cognac in the last-chance saloon ...
... while today’s Fiver riffs, scats and be-bops on PSG’s 2017 pain, and enjoys itself tremendously while doing so. Regular listeners of Football Weekly won’t need to make too many wild stabs in the dark at the identity of today’s author. Oh Baz!
PSG make three changes to the team that went down 3-1 at the Bernabeu. Neymar is injured, while Presnel Kimpembe and Giovani Lo Celso drop to the bench. Club captain Thiago Silva takes Kimpembe’s place in the centre of defence; Lo Celso loses his anchoring role to Thiago Motta; and Angel Di Maria looks to fill Neymar’s creative boots.
Real Madrid make four swaps to their starting XI in the first leg. Nacho, Toni Kroos, Luka Modric and Isco drop to the bench; Dani Carvajal, Lucas Vazquez, Marco Asensio and Mateo Kovacic take their places in a slightly more defensive-minded line-up.
The teams
Paris Saint-Germain: Areola, Alves, Silva, Marquinhos, Berchiche, Verratti, Motta, Rabiot, Di Maria, Mbappe, Cavani.
Subs: Trapp, Kimpembe, Meunier, Lo Celso, Diarra, Draxler, Pastore.
Real Madrid: Navas, Carvajal, Ramos, Varane, Marcelo, Casemiro, Kovacic, Vazquez, Asensio, Benzema, Ronaldo.
Subs: Casilla, Nacho, Kroos, Modric, Bale, Hernandez, Isco.
Referee: Felix Brych (Germany)
Preamble
Paris Saint-Germain have been here before. They were in a good position three weeks ago, in the first leg at the Bernabeu, before allowing Real Madrid to score a couple of late ones and tilt this tie away from them. File alongside last season, and another Round of 16 tie, in which they let the mother and father of all advantageous situations slip. Having beaten Barcelona 4-0 at home, they proceeded to capitulate in a wild, uncontrolled fashion at Camp Nou, Barca forward Neymar inspiring a late, late triple-whammy blitz to secure a scarcely believable 6-1 win for the Catalan giants. PSG went home not so much with their tail between their legs as the appendage cut off, chopped into little bits, sautéed, spooned into a foil tray, and popped in a doggy bag to carry home.
But ... Paris Saint-Germain have been here before. Recent history may not be too kind, but hark back a little further and the echoes are more pleasant to Francophile ears. The 1993-94 Cup Winners Cup, for example, when the PSG of George Weah dispatched Real Madrid from the quarter finals. Or what’s this? The quarter finals of the Uefa Cup the year before, when Emilio Butragueño, Iván Zamorano and Míchel secured a 3-1 first-leg home win for Real ... only for Weah and David Ginola to inspire a stunning comeback in the second leg, three goals in the last nine minutes putting the finishing touches to a 4-1 victory that smashed Los Merengues into a million dusty pieces.
So PSG have let a good position in the Champions League slip in the past. If they’re unable to turn things around at the Parc des Princes tonight, they’ll have done it again. But they’ve bounced back from a 3-1 away loss to Real Madrid in Europe before, too. If they manage to replicate that particular feat, it’ll go a long way to banishing the ghosts of last season. They just need to stun the reigning European champions, is all. No biggie. But hey, at least they’re not facing Neymar this time.
This promises to be a cracker, because with two-legged European football, you just never know. It’s the champions of Europe against one of the richest clubs in the world. It’s a fight for a place in the quarter-finals of the Champions League. It’s on!
Kick off: 7.45pm on the clock on the Guardian’s wall in Blighty, 8.45pm local in Paris.
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