Billions & 25 years Later PSG make Champions league semis

Lisbon, Aug. 13: After years of failing to live up to their billing in Europe, Paris Saint-Germain are within 90 minutes of the Champions League final thanks to their dramatic win over Atalanta on Wednesday, and coach Thomas Tuchel now knows “everything is possible” for his team.

PSG were on the verge of another disappointing Champions League exit as they trailed Atalanta 1-0 into the 90th minute in Lisbon, where all the latter stages are being played after the long coronavirus shutdown.

But Mario Pasalic’s 27thminute strike for the Italians was finally cancelled out by Marquinhos, who scrambled in a lastgasp leveller.

Then, three minutes into injury time, Kylian Mbappe set up fellow substitute Eric ChoupoMoting to convert the clinching goal.

“The goals came very late but we deserved the victory. We never stopped believing or attacking,” said Tuchel, whose team will face Atletico Madrid or RB Leipzig in the semifinal, the club’s first since 1995.

“The boys who came off the bench had a big impact. We deserved it, we made our own luck,” the PSG coach added.

The money ploughed into the French champions by their Qatari owners has increased the pressure on PSG to deliver and losing to Atalanta would have invited more criticism of a club whose recent record in such games has been poor.

After all, Atalanta’s entire wage bill is believed to be equivalent to what PSG pay Neymar per year (about 36 million euros, or $42.5m).

This is the club’s first semifinal since 1995 and the first since they were taken over by Qatari owners, who pumped in money for the elusive Champions League trophy.