PSG’s Project Mbappe ends with one final Champions League failure: Winners and losers as Kylian kept quiet yet again by mighty Mats Hummels and Borussia Dortmund’s impenetrable Yellow Wall
PSG’s Project Mbappe ends with one final Champions League failure: Winners and losers as Kylian kept quiet yet again by mighty Mats Hummels and Borussia Dortmund’s impenetrable Yellow Wall
The extra issues change, the extra they keep the identical – or so the adage goes. Paris Saint-Germain had been presupposed to be a special workforce this yr, a squad that had been stripped down and fine-tuned, with Kylian Mbappe the central star in a well-oiled machine.
But on Tuesday within the second leg of their Champions League semi-final, they befell the identical, solely predictable destiny, a advertising and marketing venture falling by the hands of an actual soccer workforce, Mbappe rendered near-useless as they crashed out of Europe’s greatest competitors with a 2-0 combination loss to Borussia Dortmund.
Everything about this was too acquainted. PSG confirmed effort, put loads of photographs on objective, and had been a bit unfortunate that 5 or 6 of them did not go in. But they had been additionally lacking within the huge moments. Meanwhile, Dortmund put collectively an impressively gritty efficiency, with Mats Hummels deservedly scoring the one objective within the 1-0 victory at Parc des Princes.
Following a quiet first half, the sport got here alive after the break. The Parisians ought to have opened the scoring inside minutes of the whistle, as Warren Zaire-Emery and Goncalo Ramos each missed golden probabilities inside the identical passage of play.
And Dortmund took benefit. Edin Terzic’s aspect had been harmful from set-pieces all through the tie, and lastly capitalised as Hummels rose to satisfy Julian Brandt’s teasing nook and headed dwelling on the again submit. What adopted was a glut of PSG misses, as they tallied 30 photographs within the recreation, hit the woodwork 4 occasions, and tallied an xG of three.22. They couldn’t, nevertheless, pressure the ball dwelling.
Still, there was a sense that they did not should win, as Terzic’s well-coached workforce floor out a outcome the correct method, displaying a superpower constructed on glitz and ego what European success seems like. And Mbappe ended his Parisian profession in the one method that felt acceptable – a dramatic however solely predictable defeat.
GOAL breaks down the winners & losers from Parc des Princes…
