defender Juan Bernat scores his team’s third goal past Leipzig’s
Hungarian goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi during the UEFA Champions League
semi-final football match between Leipzig and Paris Saint-Germain
at the Luz stadium in Lisbon on August 18, 2020.Manu Fernandez /
POOL / AFP
Paris Saint-Germain are through to the final of the
Champions League for the first time after goals by Marquinhos,
Angel Di Maria and Juan Bernat saw them ease to a 3-0 win over RB
Leipzig in a one-sided semi-final in Lisbon on
Tuesday.
It was 2-0 at half-time, with the first two goals set up by
Neymar, the Brazilian again outstanding at the Estadio da Luz, just
as he had been in last week’s quarter-final against Atalanta.
Bernat’s goal came in the 55th minute and snuffed out any hopes
Leipzig had of a comeback. They could not handle the world’s most
expensive player, or the many other outstanding performers in the
PSG side, who no longer appear overcome by the sense of occasion
that surrounds a Champions League knockout tie.
After seeming to invent ever more absurd ways to lose in Europe
in recent years — the 6-1 loss against Barcelona in 2017 and last
year’s defeat by Manchester United in the last 16 stand out —
despite all the investment by the club’s Qatari owners, here they
lived up their billing.
Bayern Munich and Lyon meet in the second semi-final on
Wednesday for the right to face PSG in Sunday’s final. Thomas
Tuchel’s team are the first French finalists in Europe’s elite club
competition since Monaco in 2004.
Nine years after Qatar Sports Investments bought a moribund
mid-table Ligue 1 team and began turning them into the untouchable
force in France, they are now one game away from winning the trophy
that really matters to them.
There is little doubt that the context in Lisbon is helping. PSG
have only needed to perform for 90 minutes instead of over two legs
in the latter stages of this season’s competition, so badly
impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.
They also need not feel the pressure of having to perform in
front of their expectant support — glimpse the other way inside
Benfica’s cavernous stadium and you really could forget there was a
football match being played.
No contest
Then again, in many ways it was not much of a match.
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A first ever European semi-final was a step too far for Julian
Nagelsmann’s young team, which featured seven outfield players aged
between 21 and 24 in the starting line-up and this time could not
compensate for the loss of star striker Timo Werner, sold to
Chelsea before the ‘Final Eight’ began.
PSG had seen Neymar hit the post before they went ahead in the
13th minute.
Neymar won a free-kick just outside the box to the left. Di
Maria swung in the dead ball and Marquinhos headed home.
The Brazilian defender, reinvented as a holding midfielder by
Tuchel, does not score many but he had already saved PSG against
Atalanta with his last-minute equaliser.
Di Maria was making his comeback after suspension kept him out
of the quarter-final. Kylian Mbappe was also fit enough to start
for the first time after his recent ankle injury.
Mauro Icardi made way as that duo joined Neymar in a three-man
attack. At the other end, Sergio Rico was rarely troubled as he
stood in for injured goalkeeper Keylor Navas.
Neymar nearly made it 2-0 with an audacious attempt from a
free-kick, almost catching out Peter Gulacsi when he hit the post
from way out on the right flank as everyone expected a cross.
But Gulacsi gifted the French champions their second just before
the break. His poor pass out fell to Leandro Paredes, and he
returned it into the box and on to Di Maria via an outrageous
Neymar flick. Di Maria controlled and slotted home.
It was game over within 10 minutes of the second half
starting.
Leipzig thought Nordi Mukiele was fouled in the right-back
position but the Dutch referee decided he had merely slipped. As
play continued, Di Maria crossed for Bernat to head in. Tuchel,
perched on a cool box in his technical area, pumped his fist in
celebration.
PSG are now hoping to become just the second French winner of
the trophy, 27 years after Marseille won the inaugural Champions
League.
AFP
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