Barcelona, Atletico on top in Champions League
Atletico Madrid moved closer to returning to the Champions League semifinals with a 2-1 win over Borussia Dortmund, while Barcelona had a 3-2 win, over Paris St. Germain (PSG) in the first leg of the quarterfinals yesterday.
In Madrid, Atletico took a firsthalf lead with goals by Rodrigo De Paul and Samuel Lino and outplayed Dortmund during most of the match but they stayed alive thanks to a late goal by substitute Sébastien Haller.
Dortmund threatened in the end and twice hit the woodwork in the final minutes.
The second leg will be played next Tuesday in Germany.
“We will be ready and hopefully we can put Atletico back in the semi-finals of the Champions League,” De Paul said. “We will give all we have to ensure that happens, but we know that will be complicated.”
Atletico haven’t made it to the last four since 2017, when they lost to city rival Real Madrid. The Spaniards have won three of their previous six quarter-finals.
1997 CHAMPIONS
Dortmund, the 1997 European champions, are looking to return to the semi-finals for the first time since 2012-13, when they lost the final to fellow Germans Bayern Munich.
“We have to live with this result today,” Dortmund captain Emre Can said. “It’s not easy to play football here, because they defend very well. There were phases where they completely overpowered us in the duels, so we’ll take the 2-1 and everything is open for next week.”
Meanwhile, in Paris, with his team trailing 2-1 and Paris Saint-Germain pushing hard for another goal, Barcelona coach Xavi Hernández’s substitutions paid off immediately.
Midfielder Pedri set up the equaliser for Raphinha within a minute of coming on at Parc des Princes stadium.
Then, two minutes after his introduction, central defender Andreas Christensen headed home from a corner to give Barcelona the win.
“Pedri came on and helped us a lot. I’m very proud of the team. Christensen also came on and helped,” Xavi said. “Tactically we did well.”
Raphinha was the pick of Barcelona’s players on the night, and the Brazil forward had scored twice before Christensen’s 77thminute goal.
The imposing Christensen headed lkay Gündo an’s corner from the left past Gianluigi Donnarumma from close range as the PSG goalkeeper stood rooted to his line instead of challenging for the ball.
DIFFICULT
After that goal, PSG coach Luis Enrique’s head dropped.
“We made things a bit difficult for ourselves. We managed to turn things around in the second half and could have had a third
(goal),” Enrique said. “Everything’s still open for us and we will go there with ambition.”
Raphinha’s lively performance and finishing contrasted with a lacklustre performance from Kylian Mbappé, who has scored a club record 251 goals for PSG, but did not hit the target this time or make many of his trademark electric runs
from deep.
Raphinha opened the scoring in the 37th and Ousmane Dembélé equalised in the 48th against his former club. Three minutes later, midfielder Vitinha put PSG ahead from Fabián Ruiz’s pass in a pulsating match where Dembélé hit the left post moments before Christensen’s goal.