Paris Saint Germain produce a late stoppage time show to grab two come back goals against Atalanta at the Estadio da Luz in Lisbon to confirm their Semifinal place at the Champions league, their 1st semifinal appearance in 25years of trying.
The Italian Serie A side Atalanta who many have written off and were largely regarded as the underdogs going into this one gave a good account of themselves and had a brilliant 1st half with their 1st chance to go into the lead coming as early as the 4th minutes when Duvan Zapata threaded a nice pass through to Alejandro Gomez who shot into the path of Keylor Navas in goal for PSG and deservedly they shot into the lead in the 26th minute courtesy of a fine strike from Mario Pasalic’s, and they were in the game all through the half as they forced Keylor Nvas to a couple of saves and he was kept busy for a while during the game. The Thomas Tuchel side grew into the game and they recorded some misses in the 1st 45 has well,1st from Neymar who was out through on goal, but was not composed enough to hit the target as his effort drifted agonizingly wide to the frustration of his teammates.it was obvious PSG had traces of match rustiness since they have not had real competitive actions since the COVID-19 enforced lockdown and eventual cancellation of the league season as the recent competitive action was their two recent domestic cup final wins in the Coupe de France and Coupe de la Ligue.
PSG seem to be suffering from a mental block of losing out at this same stage of the competition in the last two seasons after agonizing quarter final exits in hands of Barcelona and Manchester United and it was looking like it’s a case of dejavu as Atalanta were resolute in defense in the 2nd half as the Brazilian Neymar got a couple of chances for an equalizer but was wasteful severally and it was looking like Atalanta has done enough to seal a surprise Q-final win against the very expensively assembled PSG side who many have tipped to go all the way into the finals because they are well placed in a favorable part of the draw enroute the finals they have Neymar fit and firing as compared to other seasons when they crashed out at this same stage of the competition while he was injured.
PSG were also lacking in creativity as they were missing the complements of some of their creative stars like Kylian Mbappe, Angel Di Maria and Marco Verratti all out injured. Mbappe was however named on the bench and he was brought in as a sub in the later part of the game to help create something upfront, but the unlikely star of the day Marquinhos stepped up and kept PSG’s hope alive as late as the 90 minutes when he was found at the right place at the right time to direct Neymar’s cross into the back of the net for the much needed equalizer. The PSG second and winning goal of the night landed in the 93rd minutes of the night courtesy of forward Choupo-Moting fine strike to send the PSG players and bench in to wild jubilations as they finally breeze pass Atalanta, a very disappointing night for the Italian side as they gave up a lead they have protected so much within the last 4minutes of stoppage time
PSG would play their 1st champions league semifinal against the winner of the quarter final tie again RB Leipzig or Atletico Madrid on August 18 at the Estadio Jose Alvalade)
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