PSG had it all to do in the 2nd leg of their tie against Barcelona after losing 3-2 at home in the 1st leg in Paris. The 2nd leg was a night where PSG's stars simply had to show up so that the French champions could avoid yet another exit out of the Champions League with a whimper.
It seemed PSG's job in Barcelona was only going to increase in difficulty when Raphinha opened the scoring thanks to some individual brilliance from rising 16-year-old star Lamine Yamal. However, whatever game-plan Xavi Hernandez had cooked up for his team was completely thrown out of the window after Ronald Araujo received a red card in the 29th minute of the game for fouling the last man in Bradley Barcola.
From then on PSG reasserted their control over the first half and 10 minutes later were able to equalise through an Ousmane Dembele goal. The 2nd half was more of the same, and despite Barcelona's best efforts to quell the dominance of PSG, it didn't take long for PSG to take the lead through a brilliant Vitinha goal from outside of the box.
The downward spiral for Barcelona would continue as just a few minutes later Dembele was fouled in the box by Manchester City loanee Joao Cancelo, resulting in Kylian Mbappe netting the penalty and putting PSG ahead in the tie on aggregate. The cherry on top would be Mbappe killing the game off with another goal in the 89th minute, making it 48 goals in the Champions League and putting him joint-13th all-time in the scorers chart, alongside Mohammed Salah.
Here are four things we were able to discern from last nights thrilling encounter between the two European heavyweights.
Barcola's inclusion from the start beared fruit
Whilst Mbappe and Dembele may have run away with the headlines after last night, Barcola's performances over both legs proved to be just as influential. Despite coming away from the first leg without a goal contribution, Barcola simply being on the pitch was sufficiently enough to help PSG keep a foothold in the tie by providing them with a larger attacking threat.
The 1st leg saw Barcola provide that increased attacking threat from the right-hand-side, but last night Barcola operated on the left and was even more dangerous in his favoured position. Peculiarly, PSG seemed to lack a direct attacking impetus on the left-hand-side when Mbappe was deployed there in the first leg, but Barcola was able to rectify this in his performance on the left in the 2nd leg.
Barcola was much more direct, showcasing just how fluid of a dribbler he really is and causing Jules Kounde all sorts of problems for the entirety of his performance. Barcola's ability to operate as a viable outlet whenever PSG wanted to switch play out wide to his side was what ultimately led to the moment that flipped the game completely, as Araujo was unable to deal with getting beaten by Barcola's raw pace.
Barcola has at times faced criticism over his ability to make the correct decisions when attacking the box, but last night proved that when he makes his mind up early, he immediately becomes a lot more dangerous.
Dembele played like he had a point to prove to his former club
It is no secret that Dembele's time at Barcelona was ultimately underwhelming despite him winning the league with them in his final season with the culers. However, it is rather humorous that after scoring just 1 goal all season for PSG, he scored twice over two legs against his former club.
Reprimanded all night by the Barcelona fans whenever he touched the ball, it became clear that Dembele wanted to have a significant impact on the game. Not only did Dembele have more touches of the ball in this game, he won more duels in this game (8) than he did in the 1st leg (3), reinforcing how willing he was to fight for this game and his new club.
Like Barcola, Dembele was simply a problem for Barcelona's weakened defence that couldn't be mitigated. Dembele got PSG right back into the tie with his brilliance for the goal, but his close-control with the ball (and Cancelo's blind eagerness) was what allowed PSG to put a foot into the semi-finals after Cancelo fouled him just inside the penalty area. It was quite simply a night where the three Frenchmen of the PSG front-line had to show up for their team and their country, and their collective efforts resulted in Dembele walking off the pitch with a Man of the Match award and a wry smile.
Barcelona's temperamental issues cost them the tie
There's no way to spin it - Barcelona only had themselves to blame for throwing a tie they were in complete control over away. From the get-go Barcelona's game-plan was clear to see: Allow PSG to indulge in early pressure and soak it up, then gradually grow back into the game and try to get a goal, which they did via Raphinha.
The red card from Aruajo proved what a smart decsion it was for Luis Enrique to strengthen the wings for last nights game. In Paris, PSG opted to cause most of their damage centrally, but all this did was make it easier for Barcelona's defence to marshall their attackers in Mbappe, Dembele and Asensio. Employing an all-encompassing attack by including Barcola gave Barcelona's defenders a different type of challenge, and clearly Araujo wasn't adequately prepared to deal with the omnipresent outlet that was Barcola.
What was rather surprising was the foul that Cancelo stupidly gave away on Dembele, especially considering that the Frenchman had found himself essentially in a cul-de-sac on the edge of the box. The challenge was most likely out of frustration, which is not what someone like Xavi would have wanted or expected out of a senior player, especially one as experienced in high pressure situations as Cancelo.
Sacrificing Yamal might've been a mistake
An argument can be made that sacrificing the young Yamal instead of Raphinha or Robert Lewandowski was a mistake. The easy argument to make would be that experience was the priority in a treacherous situation like the one Barcelona had found themselves in, so Yamal was going to have to accept that he was sacrificed for the greater good.
However, an equally strong argument could be made that against a PSG team filled with youthful exuberance and attacking prowess, it would've been shrewder from a physical point of view to take off a Lewandowski so that Barcelona's out-of-possession shape would become more effective. Vitinha's goal came directly from Lewandowski failing to close him down - was this out of a lack of care, or tiredness?
Yamal's removal also meant that Barcelona had just lost their best attacking threat, so any chance of Barcelona sneaking a goal back even with their depleted team was essentially halved by the removal of the young Spaniard.
