The Hindu (Hyderabad)

PSG and Dortmund enter semi nals after incident- lled wins over Barca and Atletico

-

Kylian Mbappe struck twice as Paris Saint-Germain battled back to beat 10-man Barcelona 4-1 and book a place in the Champions League semi‹nals with a 6-4 aggregate on Tuesday.

Raphinha ‹red Barcelona ahead early on but Ronald Araujo’s 29th-minute red card turned the tide in PSG’s favour, despite the Spanish champion leading by two goals following a 3-2 quarter‹nal ‹rst-leg win.

Ousmane Dembele and Vitinha levelled the tie for PSG and the deadly Mbappe hit a brace to put it into the ‹nal four for the ‹rst time since 2021.

Barcelona was dreaming of a ‹rst semi‹nal return since 2019 but Araujo’s red card for pulling down the relentless Bradley Barcola undermined its grip on the tie. PSG coach Luis Enrique said he believed his team would turn things around despite never having managed to after a ‹rst-leg defeat, and so it proved.

Borussia Dortmund fought back to beat Atletico Madrid 4-2 in their quarter‹nal second leg, securing a 5-4 aggregate victory and a ‹rst Champions League semi‹nal since 2013. Trailing 2-1 from the ‹rst leg, goals from Julian Brandt and Ian Maatsen had Dortmund 2-0 up at half-time.

Diego Simeone made three changes at half-time including bringing on Angel Correa and his energy told immediatel­y, Mats Hummels conceding a poor own goal before the Argentine netted to put Atletico back ahead in the tie.

But those goals brought Dortmund back to life, with Niclas Fullkrug and Marcel Sabitzer each scoring in a three-minute period. Dortmund will next face PSG in the semi‹nal at Wembley on June 1.

The results (quarterfin­als, second leg): Dortmund 4 (Brandt 34, Maatsen 39, Fullkrug 71, Sabitzer 74) bt Atletico 2 (Hummels 49-og, Correa 64) (Dortmund wins 5-4 on aggregate); Barcelona 1 (Raphinha 12) lost to PSG 4 (Dembele 40, Vitinha 54, Mbappe 61-pen, 89) (PSG wins 6-4).

 ?? AFP ?? we go: Brandt kickstarts Dortmund’s comeback after the first-leg with this strike.
AFP we go: Brandt kickstarts Dortmund’s comeback after the first-leg with this strike.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from India