95e minute of the match. Neymar, FC Barcelona’s red and blue tunic on his shoulders, is thirty meters from the goals of PSG. The Brazilian sends a small ball stung at the penalty point. The Parisian defense is not moving, it has leaden soles. At the far post, defender Sergi Roberto throws his right foot in a desperate gesture and scores his team’s sixth goal. Camp Nou and its 100,000 spectators go into a trance. Parisians are becoming livid.
Zero. In the Champions League, a team had never qualified after losing the first leg 4-0 in a knockout confrontation. This is the feat achieved jointly by Paris Saint-Germain and FC Barcelona on March 10, 2017 on the lawn of Camp Nou. A “remountada” (a rise, in Spanish) so dizzying that the word entered the 2021 edition of the Larousse dictionary.
From this nightmare, we of course remember the final seven minutes of this second leg of the knockout stages of the Champions League between the Catalan club and that of the French capital. Seven minutes from the 88e at the 95e minute which will transform the very good performance of the first leg (victory 4 to 0, we remind you) into more incredible football disappointment of the XXIe century.
A perfect first leg
Because everything had started well for the team coached by Unai Emery. A month earlier, on February 14, the Parisians crushed the Catalans at the Parc des Princes on the notice board, with the way as a bonus. FC Barcelona is suffocated that evening by the Parisian midfielder (the trident Verratti, Rabiot and Matuidi). Two goals from Angel Di Maria and achievements from Cavani and Draxler then give the players of the City of Light the right to continue the adventure in the Champions League and who knows, perhaps, to finally lift this trophy, avowed ambition owners of the club since its acquisition in the summer of 2011.
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Of course, Parisians believe in it. The day before the match, a video posted by the YouTube channel is uploaded. We see four players (Matuidi, Verratti, Meunier and Draxler) sharing a pizza. The dialogue that turns on the apprehension of the return match against FC Barcelona, with hindsight, is surreal. “The ground is too big”, worries, for example, Marco Verratti. “Four goals ahead anyway,” recalls Thomas Meunier. Finally, the four are considering the reaction of supporters if they were to lose 5 to 1 and qualify despite everything …
Then comes March 8, 2017. Exactly 96,290 people, according to UEFA, are present at Camp Nous when the match kicks off. We must wait only three minutes before the opening of the Catalan score through Luis Suarez (1-0 for Barcelona). The tone is set, the Spaniards will play their luck thoroughly. At the 40e minute, under pressure, the Parisian left side Layvin Kurzawa scores against his camp (2-0 for Barcelona), just before half-time.
Seven minutes of nightmare
The second half starts as bad as the first: Lionel Messi scores a penalty in the 50e minute (3-0 for Barcelona). Anguish grew in the Parisian ranks, which offered themselves a few minutes of respite at 62e minute, when Edinson Cavani reduced the gap (3-1 for Barcelona). The minutes pass. The Catalans still have to score three times. The end of the match is approaching and, although we wait at least five minutes of stoppage of play, hope is rather present in the Parisian camp. It is always a little when Neymar scores a super free kick in the 88e minute (4-1 for Barcelona). But it melts quickly when the Brazilian transforms a penalty after a very slight fault by defender Marquinhos on Luis Suarez (5-1 for Barcelona). From then on, each second weighs an eternity, the minutes become hours. And finally, what shouldn’t happen, couldn’t happen, happened. At the 95e minute, Sergi Roberto crucifies the Parisians by scoring the 6e goal of his team, synonymous with qualification.
At the microphone of Canal +, the channel which comments on the match that evening, the consultant Paul Le Guen, usually calm and measured, flies in the towers : “Noooo! “It’s not possible,” adds presenter Stéphane Guy. However, the defeat is indeed real. The arbitration that evening led by the German Deniz Aytekin will be strongly criticized by the Parisian camp. The president of the club, Nasser al-Khelaïfi, going so far as to send a letter to UEFA to complain. Without confirming the doubts of PSG, the European body will however exclude this referee from the knockout matches for the next two seasons. As for Neymar, real executioner of the Parisians that evening, he will sign at PSG a few months later for the record sum of 222 million euros.
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FC Barcelona will not go further in the Champions League this season, stopped in the next round by the Italians of Juventus Turin. PSG will have a first European final in 2020, but will be beaten by Bayern Munich (1-0 for the Germans).
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