Mbappé bids farewell to PSG with another Champions League failure
The Parc des Princes was no pressure cooker. Borussia Dortmund's goal was not neutralised. Nor was the expected comeback. Mbappé said goodbye to European competition with the shirt he has worn for the last seven years in an unexpected way because the Germans are fifth in their league and nobody was betting on them even getting past the group stage in a group they shared with PSG, Newscastle and Milan and in which they finished top.
The four balls against the post by the French (plus the two from the first leg) don't count, but Hummels' header at the start of the second half does. That's football. Luis Enrique said at the end of the match that his team's goal expectations were 3 goals and Dortmund's were 0,47. The German goal came just when the Parisians were looking for the goal that would tie the tie and give them the chance to take the game to the end.
Those three goals did not come. Not even a single one from Mbappé who has played a disappointing role in the semi-finals where he has barely featured to lead his team to the final that would see him bid farewell to the club in style. ‘I'm the one who has to score,’ he said after the game, words that make his departure even more complicated in a few weeks when he announces the club where he will play.
Beraldo was young and his marking in the corner that led to the goal could have been better, although Donnarumma was responsible for the two German goals, the Italian international responded late to Maatsen's goal and allowed Hummels to score in the six-yard box despite being two metres tall.
Can, Sancho, Reus and Sabitzer are the players who make the German machine work. Without much fanfare and with a calm style of football, they want to repeat the final of eleven years ago when they lost at Wembley to Bayern Munich or, in the best case scenario, the 1996 final when they beat Juventus.
In any case, PSG are the big losers. They never knew how to take the game to that unbreathable point that puts the opponent in a bottomless pit. Something that is only within the reach of the greats of Europe. Years go by, players pass through Paris and the magic of the Champions League is still present. The project has still not lifted the Champions League after millions of euros of investment and all kinds of stars in its firmament. A club where Mbappé, Messi and Neymar came to play and now bets everything on Luis Enrique when they lose their big star in June.
