EBN-Paris Saint-Germain eliminated hosts Liverpool from the Champions League round of 16 after winning on penalties on Tuesday evening.
The Parisian team took the lead in regulation time with a goal scored by winger Ousmane Dembele, just 12 minutes into the match. This was the same result as in the first leg, and the two teams went into extra time without a goal.
The French team won the match on penalties, defeating the Reds 4-1.
Paris Saint-Germain will be in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, awaiting the winner of the match between English club Aston Villa and Belgian club Club Brugge. The first leg between the two teams ended with the English team winning (3-1) last Tuesday, at the Jan Breydel Stadium in the Belgian city of Bruges.
PSG’s dashing forwards, Bradley Barcola and Dembélé have pace on a level where only a defender of Virgil van Dijk’s quality feels enough. His great sense of positioning compensated when necessary. On the left wing Khvicha Kvaratskhelia faced up to Alexander-Arnold. A game on a knife-edge, albeit the blade so often turned on Liverpool on the counterattack.
The PSG goal came on 12 minutes, when they broke the Liverpool line and Dembélé dispatched a ball into the inside-right channel for Barcola to pursue on the far side of Andy Robertson. This time it was not the pace of Barcola to which the Scot was subjected. Instead Barcola cut back in and played the ball into the near post with his right foot. Dembélé had accelerated on the blindside of Konaté who extended to stop the cross but succeeded only in taking it past Alisson. With both grounded, Dembélé could burst past defender and goalkeeper and nudge the ball into the goal.
Liverpool’s best period was around the hour when midfielder Alexis Mac Allister hit his stride. Alexander-Arnold’s replacement Jarell Quansah would clip the inside of Donnarumma’s post with a header from Robertson’s left-sided free-kick. In extra time it swung back to PSG and then on penalties, they dispatched all four. First Vitinha and then the substitute Gonçalo Ramos, Dembélé and finally, when Jones had missed, another substitute, Désiré Doué, with the clincher. A close thing, but on this evening it felt like they deserved it.
