By David Awopetu
PSG staged a remarkable comeback in the last few minutes of the one-leg Champions League quarter-final against Italians, Atalanta, sending them through to their first semi-finals in Europe’s top competition in 25 years.
A night of frustration for PSG forward Neymar looked set to ensure more continental disappointment for the French champions as unfancied Atalanta led through former Chelsea midfielder Mario Pasalic.
Atalanta, in its first Champions League campaign, went ahead with a curling effort from Mario Pasalic in the 27th minute and held out until the 90th when Brazilian defender Marquinhos equalised for the French champions.
With Atalanta wilting, Cameroon striker, Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, turned the ball home in the third minute of added time to end Qatari-backed PSG’s embarrassing run of recent quarterfinal and round of 16 exits and send it into the last four for the first time since 1995.
The Ligue 1 side will face either Atletico Madrid or RB Leipzig, who meet later today (Friday), in their semi-final.
“When I came on, I thought to myself, ‘We can’t lose, we can’t go home like that.’ I was confident in myself, confident in the team and then the rest is the history of Paris,” said Cameroon international Choupo-Moting.
“It was very difficult to prepare the team,” PSG coach Thomas Tuchel said. “There was no rhythm because there were no games, but I could feel in the last days the determination, enthusiasm and effort.”
PSG have made a habit of finding improbable ways to lose in the Champions League since their emergence as a global force off the pitch – with Barcelona’s comeback from 4-0 down three years ago the most notable.
And Tuchel could well have joined Unai Emery, Carlo Ancelotti and Laurent Blanc in paying for that failure with his job with another letdown in Lisbon.
Champions League debutants, Atalanta, undoubtedly kicked-off as underdogs but have been superb all season, scoring 98 goals in Serie A and playing attractive, fluid, attacking football.
Neymar had already missed one glorious chance – running clean through on goal but shooting wide – when Pasalic capped a typically stylish Atalanta attack with a brilliant left-footed curler to give the Italian side a deserved lead.
Neymar – whose salary was reported this week to be equal to that of the whole Atalanta squad – blazed wide again when well placed.
But to his credit, the former Barcelona man, brought to Paris largely to deliver in this competition, continued to work hard for his side, driving them forward all night.
His 16 completed dribbles were the most in a Champions League game since Lionel Messi for Barcelona against Manchester United in April 2008.
The victory was only a third win in 11 quarter-final matches in the European Cup for the French side.
Now, the question is, could they now go all the way and claim the prize they covet most?
