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3 days ago
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The goal that won this game was a portrait of the way it had been played: all in, all the way to the end. A move that started deep in PSG’s half with Lee Kang-in chased backwards, turning, escaping and going at the opponents who had been pursuing him, ended in the Barcelona penalty area with Gonçalo Ramos sliding the ball under the body of Wojciech Szczesny. There were six seconds left, it was the 26th shot of an exhausting and enjoyable night, and now it really was over, Barcelona beaten.
For an hour they had gone at each other; for the last half an hour, as Barcelona tired, PSG had taken a step forward, turning the screw bit by bit, and in the end perhaps justice had been done. Above all, though, the feeling at the end was that this had been a lot of fun and that these are very good sides, even if Luis Enrique’s remain perhaps a step ahead, even with illustrious absentees, the Ballon d’Or winner, Ousmane Dembélé, among them. All over the pitch there were players who caught they eye, as much for the commitment as the quality, the speed at which everything happened, the intent in every action.
They had been in each other’s faces from the start. Fabián Ruiz sent the ball straight out of play from the kick-off, his teammates sprinting after it in a pack, pressing Barcelona from the first throw. Ferran Torres, roared on by the crowd, then slid in on the PSG goalkeeper Lucas Chevalier on 35 seconds.
If that was a statement of intent, what was this? Outrageous is one word for it. Achraf Hakimi had warned that this time Lamine Yamal would be facing the world’s best left-back and that, anyway, they would try not to leave Nuno Mendes one one on. So the very first time he got the ball Lamine Yamal took on three of them instead, spinning away after 85 seconds, roulette included, to set up an opening for Torres.
The next time Lamine Yamal got the ball, a drop of the shoulder almost took him away from Mendes again only for the full back to recover quickly. And then an outrageous pass with the outside of his foot, bending past two defenders and into the perfect spot like a curler’s stone sliding home across the rink, found Torres. The striker went round Chevalier and cut his shot towards what he thought was now an unguarded goal only for Illia Zabarnyi to fly back across and block it.
When Barcelona took the lead on 18 minutes it had started with Lamine Yamal too, but the decisive touch came from the other wing and an increasingly familiar source. Lamine Yamal was quickest to the loose ball; he found Pedri and the midfielder turned it towards Marcus Rashford, coming in on the left, whose first-time ball was perfectly timed for Torres to steer into the net. For the sixth successive game Rashford had a goal or an assist, Montjuic erupting. Not long after, he had a shot blocked. He accelerated to nearly set up Dani Olmo just before half-time too.
By then PSG were level. A man for whom “defender” is a woefully inadequate description, Nuno Mendes came flying out the back, going past people like a pro sprinter at a school sports day. Frenkie de Jong took him out that time, but the set of studs on Mendes’s achilles didn’t stop him doing it again soon after, flying past Jules Koundé, and now it ended with the ball in the net.
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Stepping smoothly away from Pau Cubarsi to receive the pass, Senny Mayulu finished coolly. The champions should have taken the lead before the break too, but when Bradley Barcola escaped Gerard Martín in the area he fired over.
Still they went at it. Fast feet enabled Bradley Barcola to rattle off a shot that Szczesny beat away at the near post, Cubarsi blocked Hakimi and a superb tackle from Eric García saved Barcelona one second and released them the next, his ball up the line sending Rashford sprinting up the other end to release Lamine Yamal, who could only be stopped by a double-team foul right on the edge of the area. Almost immediately, another dash and a perfectly delivered diagonal from Rashford found Lamine Yamal again to set up Olmo; Hakimi produced a fantastic block virtually on his line.
Yet PSG were starting to tilt the balance. Lee cut inside and hit a post. Mendes had a header saved and then, with time slipping away, and Lee chased down, the effort generous to the last, he managed to escape to start one last move. There was Vitinha, as always, making sense of it all. And there too was Hakimi out on the right somehow still running, flying into space to provide the perfect pass for Ramos to win it.
