Charles Jackson
PARIS– Paris Saint-Germain fell short in their bid to reach a second UEFA Champions League final in four years with a 1-0 home defeat to Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday, which completed a 2-0 aggregate defeat. 0 for the French giant. Mats Hummels scored Germany’s 50th-minute goal and Edin Terzic’s side managed to survive an onslaught for the rest of the second leg at the Parc des Princes to complete a superbly efficient two-legged display.
PSG waited for much of the game as if they wanted the victory that would take them to Wembley for the final, but the familiar problems of the first leg in front of goal did not disappear and Luis Enrique’s men somehow did not even find the net more than 180 minutes. Parisians will remember Warren Zaire-Emery hitting the post moments before Hummels delivered the killer blow or Nuno Mendes and Kylian Mbappe hitting the post, but it was also the double post incident in the first leg, Fabian Ruiz and Ousmane Dembele’s missed header on fire about.
Here is Dortmund’s goal:
PSG had an xG of 3.22 from 30 shots, the highest xG record without scoring in a UCL match in almost five years since Napoli v Genk in 2019. In both matches, PSG recorded 4.92 xG without scoring.
Going with a different look
The prolific Gonçalo Ramos had an opportunity in Luis Enrique’s starting eleven, but the Portuguese international seemed almost too enthusiastic to score and took every opportunity in each half before Bradley Barcola returned to the fold. A noisy crowd did their best to cheer the players on and it would have been impossible not to be motivated to play in front of a cauldron atmosphere, but it wasn’t enough – some might argue too much – for the players to get the job done.
Make no mistake, this wasn’t just a defeat in the Champions League semi-finals – it was a crushing defeat in what was arguably the most favorable route to the final and PSG’s best chance in years of getting their hands on the trophy they most covet. . There will be doubts about the composition of this Parisian team and whether Hummels’ winning goal illustrated the experienced hand Paris are now lacking following this team’s youthful rejuvenation last summer.
Certain reinforcements have fallen short of expectations so far, with the inability to count on Milan Skriniar, necessitating the mid-season acquisition of Lucas Beraldo, who once again looked lost in the defeat here. Lucas Hernandez’s season and possibly year-end injury in the first leg were hugely influential in that troublesome central defense headache, with the French international a model of consistency and versatility until his untimely surgery.
What is the next
Luis Enrique also has questions to answer about the too frequent cuts and changes to his starting XIs and the unbalanced nature of some of his team’s selections, but the truth is that the Spaniard has brought a largely young and inexperienced group further than as expected. PSG reaching the final may have created an unrealistic impression of a perfect rebuild of this squad, which is far from the truth and their collective limits were exposed for all to see here with second half substitutions unable to undo the damage done to the final. Signal Iduna Park and then through Hummels.
The Parc des Princes fans witnessed a one-goal defeat, as happened in the 1994-95 semi-finals to Milan, but this is likely to be more painful given the golden opportunity it was for the French champions to reach the final and potentially bring home home the big problem. Mbappé, however, is perhaps the biggest loser of all without scoring goals and without much involvement in the two legs before his expected move to Real Madrid, who could well reach the final on Wednesday against Bayern Munich despite him .
