For almost an hour, nothing seemed to be able to happen to Paris Saint-Germain, winner in the first leg at the Parc (1-0) and once again put into orbit by an almost unstoppable Kylian Mbappé.
And then as far too often in recent years, the match swung against the capital club, eliminated Wednesday evening in the knockout stages of the Champions League at the Bernabeu stadium by Real Madrid (3-1) from a Karim Benzema at the height of his glory.
Madrid pressure, Parisian opportunities
From the start, the people of Madrid tried to put pressure on a Parisian rearguard stifled in their last 20 meters. But very quickly, the spaces multiplied in the heart of the local defense, especially behind the Brazilian Eder Militao and his side Dani Carvajal.
Blessed bread for Kylian Mbappé, who stood out very quickly with two dangerous cross strikes (8th, 13th), forcing Thibaut Courtois to two good saves.
The Belgian goalkeeper was forced to bow for the first time on a whipped strike from the French striker, served back by Nuno Mendes in the middle of defenders meringue far too passive (34th). Before the flag of Danny Makkelie’s assistant raises his flag, to signal a slight offside from the Portuguese left side.
A huge alert for Real, simply gone for PSG: on a new lightning counter following a loss of ball from Carvajal, Neymar launched in depth on the left side Mbappé, who fixed Alaba in the area to deceive Courtois from the right flush with the left post (0-1, 39th).
The 157th achievement under the Parisian colors of the native of Bondy, becoming the second best director in the history of PSG, behind Edinson Cavani.
Less successful in the finish, Neymar and Lionel Messi posed a constant offensive threat to the men of Carlo Ancelotti, whose long phases of possession in front of the Paris area struggled to materialize in clear chances.
Only Karim Benzema, on a curling shot which he has secret (25th) and two successive headers (35th and 37th), put Gianluigi Donnarumma to work.
Donnarumma gets a hole, Benzema takes advantage of it
The scenario has not changed much after returning from the locker room: at Real the possession, in Paris the opportunities. Mbappé was denied a second goal for offside (54th), before being caught in extremis by David Alaba, to the rescue of Carvajal and Militao in great pain (56th).
The capital club seemed to have the game in hand, Carlo Ancelotti was activating plan B by bringing in Rodrygo and Eduardo Camavinga, when Donnarumma restarted everything…
Arrived this summer to compete with Keylor Navas in the Parisian goals, the former Milanese completely missed his recovery under the pressure of Benzema, who took advantage in the wake of Vinicius’ withdrawal to equalize (1-1, 61st).
Something to wake up the Madrid public and send PSG back to its doubts. The former Lyonnais once again sent shivers through the visitors’ defense, on a new header flush with the right post from Donnarumma (63rd), before suffering a sole from Leandro Paredes, very close to his second yellow card.
KB9 sees triple, Paris overtaken by history
But it took more to stop ”KB nueve”: after a breakthrough from Vinicius on the left side, Luka Modric managed to touch the international striker who, covered by Achraf Hakimi, adjusted Donnarumma, well helped by a slight deflection from Marquinhos (2-1, 76th).
The worst was yet to come for the Parisians: on the engagement, Marco Verratti stammered his pass for Idrissa Gueye, caught in the engagement by irresistible Madrid. Fifty meters further, Marquinhos tackled the ball to put it back in the race for Benzema, who offered himself an express hat-trick with the outside of his foot in a touch full of finesse (3-1, 78th).
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Thanks to his hat-trick against PSG, Karim Benzema now has 309 goals in all competitions under the colors of Real, becoming the third top scorer in the history of the Merengue club, ahead of legend Alfredo di Stefano.
The capital club will never recover, despite the last rushes of a Mbappé still as twirling and whose future lies further and further away from Paris.