The French champions Paris Saint-Germain turned from a goal late to a dramatic 2-1 victory over Atlanta, to qualify for the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League, for the second time in its history and the first in a quarter of a century.
The Italian team was the most dangerous in the first quarter of an hour and nearly scored in the tenth minute had it not been for the ingenuity of St Germain goalkeeper Keylor Navaz, while the Brazilian star Neymar was the main source of danger for the French League champion and led many attacks, most notably in the 18th minute when Neymar led an attack from the left side and played it A ground cross in front of the goal, but did not find someone to turn it into the goal.
After a mutual attacking skirmish, Mario Pazalic took advantage of his censorship inside the St. Germain penalty area and brilliantly hit the ball to the right corner of Navas' goal in the 26th minute.
European Champions League
Target
Mario Pazalic opens the door for scoring and scores the first goals of the match in a wonderful way !! đ
How will Neymar respond? đ€ # ATAPSG #beINUCL #UCL pic.twitter.com/TTvTdut1ot
- beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS) August 12, 2020
With individual effort, Neymar nearly equaled the score in the 28th minute when he skillfully passed the ball from near the middle of the field and hit a powerful ball that passed near the right post of Atlanta's goal.
Saint Germain controlled the ball and tried to penetrate the Atlanta defense through the ways of Neymar and Mauro Icardi and Pablo Sarabia's breakthroughs from the left front to score the equalizer, but the ingenuity of goalkeeper Marco Sportello and the frivolity in ending the attacks prevented him from reaching the net of Atlanta to end the first half with the progress of the Italian team.
Atlanta changed its way in the second half, returning to defense to maintain its lead and relying on counterattacks, taking advantage of the offensive rush of St. Germain, whose players missed their level with the exception of Neymar, who was the most active in the offensive third but without the help of the rest of his teammates.
The attack failure prompted St Germain coach Thomas Tuchel to risk pushing his star Kylian Mbappe, returning from injury in the 60th minute, as a substitute for Sarabia, hoping to break with Neymar the codes of the closed Atlanta goal.
Immediately after Mbappe went down, Atlanta changed his way again, relying on the defense of the region and close supervision, especially for Mbappe and Neymar.
Mbappe almost scored the equalizer in the 74th minute with a start from the left side, ending it with a shot that the Atlanta goalkeeper had saved, followed by another easier opportunity for Neymar, but he shot it easy close to the goalkeeper who caught it.
And the attacks of Saint-Germain through Neymar and Mbappe also followed, while Icardi was absent from the scene as a result of his surrender to close censorship, which prompted Tuchel to substitute him in the 79th minute and push by Sergio Rico.
As the match drew to a close, Saint-Germain rushed completely into the attack and led several attacks that resulted in an equalizing goal by Marcus Correa in the last minute of normal time.
The equalizer ignited the enthusiasm of the St Germain players, who rushed further towards the attack, which resulted in the winning goal in the third minute of stoppage time from a wonderful pass to Mbappe by Eric Maxime Chubu-Moting to snatch PSG to win the match.
European Champions League
Paris Saint-Germain books the first semi-final cards đ # ATAPSG #beINUCL #UCL pic.twitter.com/HJgaMvqqKr
- beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS) August 12, 2020
In the semi-final round, Saint-Germain will meet the winner of the Atletico Madrid match and Leipzig, which takes place Thursday.
And the European Football Association had decided to play one deciding match in the Portuguese capital Lisbon instead of the two-leg system in the quarter and semi-finals of the tournament due to the outbreak of the Corona epidemic.