The UEFA Champions League ‘Final Eight’ tournament has started from Wednesday. Atalanta hosted Ligue 1 champions Paris Saint-Germain in the first quarter-final of the Champions League.
PSG were the favourites to progress to the semi-finals but Atalanta impressed the whole world with their free-flowing and clever football. The Serie A side suddenly became everyone’s second-favourite team.
Atalanta went into an early 1-0 lead when Pasalic scored in the 27th minute. Many thought that the Italian club would inflict a massive heartbreak on PSG. They were winning the match deep into the 89th minute and everyone except few PSG fans were already celebrating Atalanta’s rise in European football.
But Neymar and Mbaape had other things in mind. The two football superstars combined excellently but were unable to find the final finishing touch.
In the whole match, Neymar was in the middle of almost every PSG attack. He got into excellent positions but his finishing was way off the mark. Late into the 90th minute Neymar finally sent a deflected pass in Marquinhos way and he scored the equaliser. Atlanta was unable to hold the lead. Their durability wore off in the last minutes.
Everyone was preparing for extra-time but Mbappe, who returned from injury and came on in the second half, made an excellent run which Neymar spotted and fed the ball beautifully to him. Mbappe picked out Choupo-Moting in front of goal and he scored the late winner from PSG in the 93rd minute. In a space of 5 minutes, PSG made a comeback from 0-1 down to win the match by 1-2.
Atalanta’s goalscorer Pasalic told Sky Sport Italia: “It’s a pity, we were so close, but that’s the Champions League, teams with quality upfront can score two goals in two minutes. The disappointment is there, so are regrets, but we want to look forward and be more prepared for the Champions League next season.”
“We did all we possibly could, there’s no doubt about that, but these teams have so much individual quality that they can hurt you at any moment. I think we proved that we can fight it out with the strongest opponents and I hope we can do the same in the Champions League next season.”
It was a heartbreak for Atalanta after being so close to progress to their first-ever Champions League semi-final. PSG will now face RP Leipzig or Atletico Madrid in the semi-final. They had now sent a strong signal to all the Champions League side that they believe in themselves till the last moment and would fight for it. Maybe it’s finally PSG’s time to bring the Champions League home.
