Charles Jackson
Paris Saint-Germain’s UEFA Champions League journey ended after a 1-0 defeat at home to Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday confirmed a 2-0 aggregate defeat in the semi-finals, with the Germans progressing to the final that the Parisians thought would be theirs. Goals from Niclas Fullkrug and Mats Hummels in both legs unraveled a frustrated PSG side, who Luis Enrique saw created chance after chance without scoring a single goal despite the superb atmosphere for the second leg in Paris. PSG’s expected goals in both legs almost reached five, but there were no goals, hitting the post four times in the second half after doing so twice in the first. The disappointment will be huge for the French champions, but this is undoubtedly not the most devastating of the UCL exits suffered by the Ligue 1 giants over the years since they became mainstays of the continental table.
We analyze three results that left bigger scars than the ones this one will end up leaving.
#3: Real Madrid, 2021-22 round of 16
Beating Real Madrid 1-0 in the first leg of the round of 16 and then winning 1-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu – both goals scored by Kylian Mbappe – the heartache was enormous when Karm Benzema scored in the 17th minute. the trick came back to surprise PSG. It was a collective capitulation that brought back bad memories of previous traumas and a clear sign that the Parisians had not overcome the damage inflicted by the likes of Barcelona and Manchester United in previous years and that was with three stars ahead of Mbappe, Neymar and Lionel Messi. Now without two of those three stars and soon without the full trio, this group can continue to build towards the future, while the pain in 2022 was the end of the road for some of the stars PSG had on the field that night in Madrid.
#2: Manchester United, 2018-19 Round of 16
Possibly even more painful than Real in 2022 was United in 2019, when a depleted PSG side won 2-0 away at Old Trafford, seemingly securing an easy passage to the quarter-finals despite losing the key player Neymar. What followed at the Parc des Princes was a dramatic 3-1 defeat to a Red Devils team few thought capable of such a comeback, with the Brazilian star watching helplessly from the touchline as Marcus Rashford’s penalty sent United to the quarter-finals instead of the French giants. . Despite two years later, Remontada’s wounds were still visible and showed no signs of healing, as they were reopened a few years later by Real.
No. 1: Barcelona 2016-17, round of 16
Nothing, however, will compare to the origins of all of PSG’s European problems, as they faced Barcelona, arguably their most infamous moment on the European football scene. A 4-0 thrashing in the first leg somehow turned on its head and turned into a 6-1 horror show that wasn’t helped by dodgy refereeing and inflicted psychological damage from which the Parisians probably never recovered – certainly not under Unai Emery, who was on the attack that fateful night in Catalonia when current PSG coach Luis Enrique engineered a 6-5 aggregate triumph that triggered Neymar’s departure from Camp Nou, among other things. . Although it was completely exorcised with this year’s quarter-final recovery against the Blaugrana, it took almost 10 years for that trauma to be banished. Dortmund will leave behind a different kind of damage, but nothing as devastating as the 2017 collapse and the mental complex that formed from it.
