Ten-man Paris Saint-Germain sensationally came from behind twice to dump Chelsea out of the UEFA Champions League on away goals after extra-time on Wednesday as Bayern Munich also qualified for the quarter-finals with a 7-0 rout of 10-man Shakhtar Donetsk.
Held 1-1 in their round-of-16, first leg at the Parc des Princes, the Parisians needed an exploit to get past Chelsea and they achieved just that in the English capital, drawing 2-2 on the night for a 3-3 aggregate scoreline to join holders Real Madrid, Bayern and Porto in the last eight.
Despite playing the last hour of normal time and 30 minutes extra-time without talisman Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who was sent off for a foul on Oscar, PSG dug deep to take revenge for last season’s quarter-final exit to Chelsea.
Photo: AFP
“PSG really wants to join the big leagues and I think we did that tonight,” PSG coach Laurent Blanc said. “I think this match will be a references for the club for some years. [Jose] Mourinho came up to congratulate me afterwards and told me that we had had two great matches. I felt a lot of respect.”
Chelsea manager Mourinho lamented his side’s inability to finish off the game at Stamford Bridge.
“We didn’t deserve to go through,” Mourinho said. “The individual performances were not good enough and when you concede two goals from two corners it’s about lack of concentration, lack of responsibility to cope with the markers and the space you have to control. When a team cannot cope with the pressure of being one player more and playing at home ... we couldn’t cope with that pressure.”
Photo: AFP
Ibrahimovic was sent off in the first half and PSG fell behind to a Gary Cahill goal with nine minutes remaining, only for Chelsea old boy David Luiz to take the tie to extra-time with an 86th-minute header.
Thiago Silva appeared to have gifted Chelsea a place in the last eight after conceding a penalty for a handball that Eden Hazard converted, but the PSG captain scored with six minutes of the game remaining to send Blanc’s side through on away goals.
PSG president Nasser al-Khelaifi hailed a “magnificent, historic” victory for the club in their quest for European glory.
Photo: AFP
“It’s proof we’re on the right track. We believe in the project and we want to go as far as possible,” the Qatari businessman said.
German champions Bayern also advanced in style in Munich, to keep their bid for a sixth elite European title on track.
Despite playing out a drab goalless draw in the first leg in Ukraine, Bayern made no such mistake against a Shakhtar side reduced to 10 men in just the third minute after Olexander Kucher brought down Mario Goetze.
Kucher’s dismissal beat the previous fastest Champions League red card of 5 minutes, 52 seconds for Werder Bremen’s Valerien Ismael against Inter in September 2004.
“I think the red card was unfair,” Shakhtar coach Mircea Lucescu said. “From then on we couldn’t play our game as planned. We lost out in all areas. They were stronger all round. The match was over for us after 3-0.”
Thomas Mueller scored from the resulting penalty, Jerome Boateng also getting on the score sheet before halftime.
The floodgates opened in the second-half, Franck Ribery, Mueller, Holger Badstuber, Robert Lewandowski and Goetze all scoring.
Twelve days after winning her second Grand Slam title at the French Open, Coco Gauff fell at the first hurdle on grass in Berlin on Thursday as beaten Paris finalist Aryna Sabalenka advanced to the quarter-finals. Recipient of a first round bye, American Gauff lost 6-3, 6-3 to Chinese qualifier Wang Xinyu as world number one Sabalenka beat Rebeka Masarova 6-2, 7-6 (8/6) in her second round tie. Winner of 10 main tour titles, including the US Open in 2023 and the WTA Finals last year, Gauff has yet to lift a trophy in a grass-court tournament. “After I won the first
While British star Jack Draper spent the past week trying to find rhythm and comfort in his first grass tournament of the season at the Queen’s Club Championships in London, Jiri Lehecka on Saturday bulldozed everything in his path. After more than two furious hours of battle, their form was reflected in the final scoreline as Lehecka toppled a frustrated Draper, the second seed, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 to reach the biggest final of his career, against Carlos Alcaraz. Lehecka is also the first Czech to reach the men’s title match at Queen’s since Ivan Lendl lifted the trophy in 1990. Draper, who
Top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka staged a “crazy comeback,” saving four match points before beating Elena Rybakina 7-6 (6), 3-6, 7-6 (6) in the quarter-finals of the Berlin Open on Friday. Sabalenka was 6-2 down in the final-set tie-breaker, but won six straight points to reach her eighth semi-final of the season. “Elena is a great player and we’ve had a lot of tough battles,” Sabalenka said. “I have no idea how I was able to win those last points. I think I just got lucky.” “I remember a long time ago when I was just starting, I won a lot of matches being down
The Canterbury Crusaders edged the Waikato Chiefs 16-12 in an intense Super Rugby Pacific final battle in Christchurch yesterday to claim their 15th title in 30 years of the Southern Hemisphere competition. Hooker Codie Taylor scored a try and Rivez Reihana contributed 11 points from the kicking tee as the most dominant team in Super Rugby history extended their perfect home playoff record to 32 successive matches since 1998. The Chiefs, who were looking for a first title since 2013, scored first-half tries through George Dyer and Shaun Stevenson, but were unable to register a point after the break and fell to
RSS