In this season’s quarterfinal, PSG knocked out Barcelona in a manner reminiscent of how the Blaugrana knocked them out in 2017. Barcelona was all but out of the Champions League after being beaten 4-0 at PSG’s Parc des Princes in the first leg of the round of 16.
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At the time, Luis Enrique was Barcelona’s manager and they had their work cut out for them if they were going to qualify for the next stage of the competition. It looked almost impossible as they went into the second leg at Camp Now with a four-goal deficit and no away goals. They had to win at home by scoring at least five goals and prevent PSG from scoring any to overcome their four-goal deficit; a Herculean task considering they were facing one of the biggest teams in Europe.
Luis Enrique’s Barcelona did the impossible and won the game 6-1 completing the biggest comeback in UCL history. They progressed to the next stage of the competition as they won the tie 6-5 on aggregate. Barcelona took the lead in the 3rd minute thanks to a goal from Suarez and by the end of the first half, they were up 3-0 at the Nou Camp after Kurzawa scored an own goal and Messi scored a penalty won by Neymar. Cavani scored for PSG in the 62nd minute which meant that Barca needed three more goals to qualify so that PSG doesn’t win on away goals. Neymar scored two late goals; a free-kick and a penalty to put them level 5-5 on aggregate. He assisted Sergio Roberto’s goal in the 90+5th minute, finally completing the comeback for them.
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Seven years later, Barcelona are on the wrong side of La Remontada as they were knocked out of the 2023/2024 Champions League quarter-finals in a comeback by PSG. Poetically, it happened under the same manager who oversaw their comeback against PSG. A former Barcelona player; Ousmane Dembele was also on the scoresheet against them in the comeback. The Catalan giants who have had terrible luck in the UCL for the past six seasons finally made it to the quarterfinals of the competition for the first time since their now legendary 8-2 defeat to Bayern Munich in 2020 only to be knocked out again by an old enemy using their former manager and player.
Barcelona came into the second leg of the quarter-finals this season with a 3-2 victory over PSG at the Parc des Princes. All they had to do to qualify was to maintain their lead but PSG wasn’t having any of that. Raphinha scored a goal for the Catalans in the 12th minute to bring the aggregate score to 4-2. This meant that PSG now had to score at least 3 goals to win and qualify. Unfortunately for the Catalans, things started to fall apart after Ronald Araujo was given the marching orders with a red card in the 29th minute of the game after a rather pointless foul on Barcola.
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Ousmane Dembele started off the comeback with his goal in the 40th minute bringing the aggregate to 4-3 in favour of Barcelona by halftime. PSG’s Vitinha scored in the 54th minute to put PSG ahead in the match and bring them level on aggregate. Mbappe of course finished off the comeback by scoring a brace later in the game. The Frenchman scored a penalty in the 61st minute after Barca’s Joao Cancelo lunged at Dembele in the box. The aggregate now stood at 4-5 in PSG’s favour and they sealed the deal and completed their own Remontada as Mbappe scored in the 89th minute to confirm their spot in the semi-finals and crush any Catalan dream of progressing to the next stage of the competition. The match ended 1-4 bringing the total aggregate to 4-6 in favour of PSG.
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It’s quite poetic that Barca was knocked out of the UCL this season by an ex-player and an ex-manager while some Barcelona supporters felt that the red card on Araujo was unjustified; the same way PSG felt a lot of decisions were unjustly against them in 2017. What do you think?
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Luis Enrique; the same manager that oversaw Barcelona’s comeback had now knocked them out with the same club PSG they knocked out so many years ago in a similar comeback. Worse still, it happened in their home game and with an ex-player whose performance won him the man-of-the-match award. PSG are now set to face Borussia Dortmund in the semifinals of the competition. Do you think the French giants can go all the way and win their first UCL title?