PSG's late, late double ends Atalanta's Champions League dream
In the end it took £400m of attacking talent, 93 minutes of increasingly frantic football, and a man who mustered up five goals in a single year at Stoke to wrench a thrilling Champions League quarter-final the way of Paris Saint-Germain.
It had to be Neymar, one way or another. The world’s most expensive footballer had played for much of the game like a man trapped inside another kind of storyline, finding space fluently but shooting at goal like a man wearing wooden clogs.
Gian Piero Gasperini’s Atalanta underdogs had played with familiar verve to lead 1-0 with 90 minutes already up. At which point PSG’s labouring star machine finally found some relief.
Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, on as a 79th-minute substitute, swung a fine cross into the box, and the ball was deflected in off a combination of an Atalanta defender and Marquinhos.
Three minutes later, with extra time looming, Neymar played an extraordinary, high-pressure pass, taking the ball in a small space outside the area, freezing the moment, then sliding the ball inside José Palomino to meet the run of Kylian Mbappé. His low cross was equally precise. Choupo-Moting turned the ball into the net to set up a semi-final with either RB Leipzig or
Atlético Madrid next Tuesday.
Atalanta will remain the wider story and not just because of another stirring show from this high-intensity team of low-cost parts. A Champions League quarter-final represents an alltime high, albeit one that will be coloured by other emotions. The horrors of March in Bergamo are well-documented. This is a region still processing its grief. Freewheeling success on the football field is not a fix or a balm for this kind of real-life pain. But all things considered, it is not a bad place to start.
The other story is, of course, Neymar, and a step into fresh territory for Thomas Tuchel’s version of that oddly brittle PSG star vehicle. Neymar remains, for all the outstanding moments, an object of some frustration among those baffled by the choice to move at his peak to an environment as lukewarm as Ligue 1.
And yet, Neymar did deliver and did so when his team needed it most. There are stronger opponents in the draw but not many better attacks, with Mbappé likely also to be fit for the next round.
The Estádio da Luz had provided an agreeably haunting stage for the latest instalment of midsummer Covid-bal. The late evening kick-off meant Lisbon was at least mercifully cool, a step down from the predicted mid-August firepit.
Atalanta had Marco Sportiello in goal, with Josip Ilicic absent for domestic reasons. PSG were without Ángel Di
María and Marco Verratti, with Mbappé on the bench.
The action was frantic from the start. It took Neymar two minutes to produce an astonishing miss, running in on goal unimpeded from the centre circle, then shanking the ball five yards wide of the right-hand post.
Unconcerned by their own suicidally high defensive line, Atalanta set about besieging the PSG end. With 10 minutes gone Hans Hateboer drew a clawing save from Keylor Navas and the game settled into a series of crisp, direct Atalanta attacks, broken up by the occasional white-shirted counter.
For a while that powerful PSG midfield began to dictate its more stately rhythms but it was Atalanta who took the lead. Duván Zapata found space just outside the box, tumbling over as the ball ran on to Mario Pasalic. His first-time shot zinged into the top corner.
The response was familiarly staccato. Neymar produced a nutmeg on Pasalic then pinged a shot just wide. Otherwise Atalanta held their high line and swarmed around the ball, their combinations zippy and urgent where PSG seemed to be playing through a midsummer haze.
Neymar had time before the break to miss another presentable chance, blasting miles over the bar after seizing on a terrible pass from Hateboer and sending Tuchel into mild frenzy in his dugout.
Tuchel has something agreeably pale and gaunt about him at the best of times, striding about the touchline looking like a sad-eyed victorian wraith. In Lisbon, left leg encased in a surgical boot, he could be seen shielding his brow and flinching in horror at times in that first half.
Mbappé, his remaining ace, was sent out to warm up at the interval. And PSG did start with more purpose after the break. Neymar continued to find space but still lacked any sense of edge. A low free-kick on 50 minutes was his fourth shot at goal, his third off target.
With 31 minutes to play Mbappé was on, replacing Pablo Sarabia. His impact was instant, a series of surges down the left offering a threat where PSG had been reliant on Neymar’s twists and spins.
Atalanta flooded that side, surrounding Mbappé with five defenders at times. It looked like being enough, right up until that extraordinary ending.