Once again, the Saint in "Paris Saint Germain" lived up to its appellation as they performed another Saintlike deed, blowing away a huge and essential first leg lead to allow the other team go through.
How many of we football lovers saw this coming? Few I bet. In reality, no one would think or believe Paris Saint Germain would not play a part in the Quarters of the Uefa Champions League after subduing Manchester Untied on their own turf and winning by 2 unreplied goals. The odds were on PSG to qualify against a highly depleted Manchester United team who they believe had nothing to play for other than compete for competition sake but Lady Luck had got the back of the red devils and they showed their mettle without much of their starters.
How It Happened
PSG came out with the intention of securing their lead and most importantly scoring first to make the tie more harder than it already was. And for the history, no team in the history of the Uefa Champions League has ever overturned a 2 goals and above first leg lead, enough reason to give PSG the confidence and depreciate that of Manchester United but in reality, some things are meant to motivate you aren't they?
As early as the 2nd minute, 22 year old PSG defender Kehrer sold Thiago Silva short with a pass and Lukaku ran towards the ball from behind, rounding Buffon and reducing the aggregate lead to 1.
PSG had some chances to equalize, the closest falling at Kylian Mbappe's feet but the French attacker failed to find the net. However, he made up for his missed chances in the 12 minute as a great movement from him resulted in a cross field pass that found United's Baily napping before Bernat pushed in the cross into the net to level the scores.
PSG continued to dominate up until the 30th minute when the great Gianluigi Buffon performed a howler after failing to magnet a long distance, not-too-strong effort from Rashford, allowing Lukaku to pounce on the rebound and take United ahead again.
The match steadied a bit with both teams trying to carve out openings. Parist Saint Germain got closer the most with Mbappe missing a one vs one situation with the keeper and Di Maria hitting the post and then came the hour of calamity for PSG and prosperity for Manchester United. Substitute Dalot got a space for a shot outside the eighteen yard box and struck, with the ball hitting the under arm of defender Kizembepe. VAR was consulted after protests from the United team and a penalty was finally awarded with Marcos Rashford converting to take Manchester United 2 goals up and ahead on away goal rule.
Dear ones, that was how it ended, to the utmost unbelief of PSG and their fans, a two goal first leg away advantage blown at injury time by a depleted team who scored their three goals without creating the chances.
Conclusion
One of the unexpected shortcomings of the Paris club in the Uefa competition was against Barcelona, when they blew away a 4-0 first leg lead, allowing the Catalans pull off the greatest come back of the Uefa Champions League history, going through after scoring three goals in 7 minutes to win 6-1.
Since a very rich Quatar family took over the club, they have invested mouthwatering amount of money in the team with the hope of lifting that one trophy that they feel and feel right should tag them along the best teams on the planet, the Uefa Champions League. Despite all the ridiculous amount spent for the past eight years, the team has not crossed the Quarterfinals of the competition, absurd yeah? That is what it is.
Paris Saint Germain would be looking forward to find out what exactly is the reason they are not performing well in Europe after getting bored of domestic success and I am pointing at investing on attackers and abandoning the midfield and defence, including the keeper, plus adopting the "Spirit Of Men", because that is what is clearly missing in them when they hit the strides running in the competition.
Did I miss anything here? Yeaaah, Paris Saint Germain would be back next season.
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