Man City drew 0-0 against Sporting Lisbon to progress, the first leg in Portugal had ended with a 5-0 for the “Citizens”. FC Bayern and Liverpool had already booked the quarter-final ticket on Tuesday. David Alaba did the same with Real, although it didn’t look like it for a long time. The Madrilenians had a slight starting advantage, but the better goalscoring went to PSG from the start. Mbappe was denied by Thibaut Courtois in the 13th minute, nine minutes later Neymar also found his master in the Madrilenians’ goalie.
In the 34th minute, the hosts were lucky when an Mbappe goal was disallowed for a narrow offside by assistant Nuno Mendes. Five minutes later, the French world champion officially entered the shooting list. Real lost the ball in the opposing half, followed by a lightning-fast counterattack by the French. Neymar sent Mbappe on his way and the star striker, who was hesitant to attack from Alaba, surprised Courtois with a shot into the near post.
Mbappe had already scored the decisive goal in the first leg. The 23-year-old, who was doubtful for the game due to a training injury, has been linked with a summer free transfer to the Madrilenians for months. Real also have an exceptional striker, as Benzema showed in his attempts next to the goal (25th, 37th).
Furious 17 minutes from Benzema
At the beginning of the second half, Mbappe was still the focus. In the 54th minute, another goal by the Frenchman was rightly disallowed for offside, two minutes later Alaba prevented the attacker from completing with a spectacular tackle. The big Benzema performances followed a little later. PSG goalie Gianluigi Donnarumma was attacked while playing out Benzema and involuntarily carried the ball to Vinicius junior. The Brazilian put it down to Benzema and the French veteran made it 1-1 (61′). Just three minutes later, a Benzema header went just inches off target.
Shortly thereafter, the 34-year-old managed the decisive double strike. First, Benzema scored after a counterattack and ideal template from Luka Modric with a shot deflected by Marquinhos (76th). At 3: 1, Marquinhos served the ball ideally for Benzema, the French international didn’t take long to ask and shot directly with the outside of his foot in the 78th. This means that the Parisian star ensemble, bought from Qatar with many millions of euros, in which Lionel Messi acted inconspicuously, has to wait for the first CL title.
“We managed to do what we set out to do from the start: put the pressure on. We didn’t let ourselves go crazy after going 0-1 and of course the second half was magical. We were even hungrier in the second half and attacked even harder when pressing. Karim has shown what quality he brings with him. We’re happy to have him in our ranks,” said Alaba after his 99th game in the Champions League.
