5 moments that caught the eye in this week’s Champions League
But from the 88th minute onwards, deep into “Cesarini time”, three goals arrived in a insane finish.
Barcelona suffered a 4-0 loss in the first leg of their Round of 16 matchup with Paris SG last month.
More than that, French soccer is oozing with young talent: the 21-year PSG midfielder Adrien Rabiot, 18-year-old Kylian Mbappe at Monaco, 19-year-old Ousmane Dembele at Borussia Dortmund, through to the quarterfinals after a 4-0 win over Benfica in the second leg, to name just three players.
Enrique, who has won eight out of a possible 10 trophies as Barca coach and could claim another treble in his final season, has often declared to be unaffected by criticism.
Edinson Cavani’s goal in the 62nd minute looked to have broken Barcelona hearts, but the Catalan giants rallied and Sergi Roberto’s late strike saw them run out 6-1 winners on the night and 6-5 on aggregate.
In the 87th minute, Barcelona led the match 3-1, but trailed 5-3 on aggregate, and PSG held the tie-breaker with an away goal.
“If we were capable of scoring four goals against Madrid at the Bernabeu, why can’t we score four against Paris at the Camp Nou?” the Uruguayan said.
“I dedicate this win to all Barca fans who kept faith in us”.
This is the most obvious reason, but it can’t be overstated how rare it is for a team to overturn a 4-0 first leg defeat. “We’re going to fight until the end”.
Then, boats against the current, PSG scores.
Luis Enrique We had nothing to lose tonight because we had already lost everything in Paris. While PSG was focused on making sure Lionel Messi didn’t see much of the ball, Neymar did something that matched any of Messi’s awesome Champions League performances.
Barcelona need at least four goals to avoid being eliminated in the last 16 for the first time in almost a decade.
Neymar’s free-kick in the 89th minute followed a penalty a minute later, and then, five minutes later, he lofted the ball forward for the sixth.
Sergi Roberto came off the bench and scored the victor for Barcelona.
Barca first scored three goals but was pinned down by a Cavani volley.
Knowing the task ahead of his side at the start of the game Barcelona coach Luis Enrique took a risk by playing a three-man defense in order to fit Rafinha, Andres Iniesta and Ivan Rakitic into his side.
The club said players were insulted and had their cars vandalised as supporters waiting to confront the team at Bourget Airport created an “extremely hostile and aggressive climate”.