Paris Saint-Germain defeated Barcelona 4-1 on Tuesday to advance to the Champions League semifinals and 6-4 on aggregate.
Despite having an early lead, the Blaugrana’s hopes were dashed by Ronald Araujo’s red card, which assisted the French cause despite Kylian Mbappe’s two goals.
Barcelona had an incredible foundation on which to build after defeating PSG 3-2 in the first leg.
Luis Enrique greeted Achraf Hakimi’s return to the PSG dugout with open arms and promoted Warren Zaire-Emery back into the starting lineup despite his criticism of the young player over the weekend.
Tuesday night, Xavi could not have asked for a better start as his team soaked up some lackluster PSG attempts in the early going before taking the lead through Raphinha.
Lamine Yamal squirmed past right-wing defenders to arrive into the byline, where he cut the ball across the box for the Brazilian.
Replays would later reveal that, despite the initial appearance of an own goal, Raphinha was not watching as the ball touched his standing leg before bouncing into the net.
With Ronald Araujo defending Mbappe so well, it was hard to see how PSG would tie the game at that point. However, it was to be the Uruguayan who would make a potentially fatal mistake.
Araujo was given a straight red card for denying Bradley Barcola a clear chance to score a goal after he was taken off guard and let the player get close to the penalty area.
The home crowd sensed the pressure as soon as it started to build. Barcola’s low cross across the face of the Blaugrana goal was a probe by the visiting team, and it found its way to Ousmane Dembele at the back post.
After facing boisterous jeers the entire game, Dembele unleashed his resentment on the ball by slamming it into the net’s roof past a defenseless Marc-Andre ter Stegen, starting the Paris team’s unlikely comeback.
As anticipated, PSG changed gears early in the second half after Barcelona was down to 10 men and Lamine Yamal was sacrificed as a substitute.
A clever maneuver that saw Dembele cut to the right, locate Mbappe inside the area, and have the French forward wait for Fabian Ruiz to overlap in his run. The Spaniard missed the far post with a low drive that he launched.
Feeling the pandemonium, Joao Cancelo committed a mistake of his own. With the ball on the edge of the penalty box, Ousmane Dembele seemed to be running out of space, and the Portuguese defender just launched a sliding challenge.
The referee pointed to the penalty spot after he passed the French striker to get to the ball. PSG led 5-4 overall after Mbappe converted the spot-kick with strength and grace.
Mbappe once more helped PSG secure the victory in the last minutes of play. When the ball broke to him inside the box, he was able to convert it, giving PSG the advantage 6-4 overall and securing their place in the semifinals against Borussia Dortmund.
