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Photo by FRANCK FIFE/AFP via Getty Images
Barcelona are out of this season’s Champions League but gave themselves and the fans reasons to be proud after a 1-1 draw at the Parc des Princes in the Round of 16 second leg against PSG. Barça played a truly exceptional first half và could have gone into the break with a lead of at least three goals, but a combination of poor finishing, questionable refereeing and a great night for PSG goalkeeper Keylor Navas led lớn a draw và a graceful European exit for Barça.

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FIRST HALF

Barça played one of their best halves of football in recent memory in the first 45 minutes, dominating possession, pressing PSG khổng lồ near suffocation & controlling the threat of Kylian Mbappé on the counter-attack almost perfectly.

The first 25 minutes were truly sublime, and Ousmane Dembélé was unplayable. The Frenchman required two amazing saves from Navas & played a great cross that Lionel Messi couldn’t reach for a tap-in, and Sergiño Dest hit the crossbar for good measure.

Barça should have scored at least twice in that amazing start, but they couldn’t & were then punished by three minutes of madness, which started with Óscar Mingueza receiving a yellow card then almost being sent off 30 seconds later for two bad fouls on Mbappé, & then Clément Lenglet accidentally stepped on Mauro Icardi’s ankle và was called for a ridiculous penalty after a VAR check, & Mbappé scored from the spot lớn give PSG the lead.

Barça could have collapsed after those three minutes but quickly picked themselves up và continued khổng lồ attack, and Lionel Messi scored one of the greatest goals of his career with a rocket from 35 yards to lớn equalize và give Barça life. Then, just before halftime, Layvin Kurzawa kicked Antoine Griezmann inside the box và there was a giant chance for the Blaugrana.

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Messi stepped to the spot, took a poor penalty và Navas saved it against the crossbar. At halftime, a spectacular Barça deserved to lớn be at least three goals up, but the game was somehow đơn with an impossible job for the Blaugrana to vày in the second half.

SECOND HALF

Barça worked so hard in the first half that they were bound to have a drop in energy in the second, & that’s exactly what happened in the first 15 minutes or so of the final period, though the Blaugrana still did an excellent job of stopping Mbappé who was quite simply dominated by Junior Firpo in that period.

PSG’s plan was to defend all match and with the Mbappé threat completely neutralized by Barça, all the trang chủ team could bởi as we reached the final 10 minutes was park the bus và hope for no more troubles until the final whistle. Ronald Koeman sent as many attacking players on as he could, but Barça looked completely out of energy lớn come up with three goals in the dying seconds.

The Blaugrana never gave up but couldn’t find another goal, và the final whistle came to officially over their European journey this season. But this was a night of encouragement, courage và pride for a team that refused lớn quit and put up as good a fight as they could have done.

Frenkie De Jong and Junior Firpo were immense at the back, Messi had his best European performance in a while và Ronald Koeman put together a great plan to lớn stop Mbappé. Now it’s all about La Liga and the Copa del Rey Final for the rest of the season, and I am confident in this team now. They’ve made me proud. Thank you for the fight, boys.

Paris SG: Navas; Florenzi (Dagba 76’), Marquinhos, Kimpembe, Kurzawa (Diallo 46’); Gueye (Danilo 59’), Paredes, Verrati (Rafinha 84’); Draxler (Di María 59’), Icardi, Mbappé

Goal: Mbappé (pen 30’)

Barcelona: Ter Stegen; Mingueza (Firpo 35’), De Jong, Lenglet; Dest (Trincão 66’), Busquets (Moriba 78’), Pedri (Pjanic 78’), Alba; Messi, Griezmann; Dembélé (Braithwaite 78’)