Dortmund stuns PSG to return to nal after 11 years
Mats Hummels’ second half header proves the di erence in the second leg victory; the hosts are denied by the post four times with Mbappe failing to impose himself
ats Hummels headed in the only goal as Borussia Dortmund stunned Paris Saint-Germain in their Champions League seminal second leg on Tuesday, winning 1-0 on the night and advancing 2-0 on aggregate to next month’s nal at Wembley.
Hummels struck ve minutes into the second half at the Parc des Princes and PSG was unable to muster a response, the home side all out of luck as it hit the woodwork four times in total.
MUnderdogs
Dortmund, fth in the German Bundesliga, was never expected to go so far and will be underdogs in the June 1 showpiece.
It will be its rst nal since 2013 when, remarkably, the match was also played at Wembley and Jurgen Klopp’s Dortmund team lost to Bayern.
Hummels played in that nal and here, 11 years later, he was the hero as Dortmund built on the advantage given to them by Niclas Fuellkrug’s goal in the rst leg.
The story of this seminal,
Hummels, right, nods in Dortmund’s winner against PSG.
however, is just as much about PSG’s failure in another crunch knockout tie in the competition.
No dream send-o
It has never won the trophy despite all the money invested by its Qatari owners since the 2011 takeover, and there will be no dream send-o for Mbappe.
He will leave when his contract expires after this season and had been hoping to play his last game for the club in the June 1 nal.
Instead PSG will be left to re¡ect on how it failed to get its hands on the biggest trophy of all during
Mbappe’s seven years at his hometown team.
Luis Enrique’s team had won 2-0 at home against the same opponent in the group stage and was safe in the knowledge that a repeat of that performance would be enough.
The PSG coach made one major selection decision, dropping Bradley Barcola and bringing in Portuguese striker Goncalo Ramos.
That meant moving Mbappe out of a central position and onto the left wing.
Dortmund would have been bracing itself for an onslaught from kick-o, but that did not transpire.
Mbappe took only seven minutes to produce his rst attempt, yet his volley was easily saved by Dortmund goalkeeper Gregor Kobel.
Looking isolated
The hosts had most of the possession but struggled to get Mbappe into the game, with the France captain often looking isolated on the wing.
The result: Semifinal, second leg: Paris Saint-Germain 0 lost to Borussia Dortmund 1 (Hummels 50) (Dortmund wins 2-0 on aggregate).