BARCELONA VS PSG REVIEW AND ANALYSIS

 What. A Game! we've been treated to 2 quarterfinal classics in one night, the other being Dortmund vs Atletico. From start to finish this was a breathtaking game with a few controversies.

Just like the first leg, PSG started this game on the front foot and penned Barcelona in their own half. Despite hardly getting a sniff of the ball in the opening phase, just like the first leg, Barca scored first, and the goal scorer was raphinha.It came completely against the run play of play in a sequence where Lamine Yamal skinned Nuno Mendes for pace and squared the ball across for a tap in, giving Barca a two-goal lead on aggregate. All seemed to be well for Barcelona until one moment of carelessness cost them. PSG caught the Barca defense out of position in a quick break which left Bradley Barcola one on one against Ter Stegen with Araujo right behind Barcola as the last man.Instead of fouling Barcola, Araujo should have just let him take the shot cause there was a possibility he might have missed or foul him in the penalty box,avoird a red car and get a yellow card as there was also a possibility that Ter Stegen could have saved the pen but he did neither and instead fouled him on the edge of the penlaty box which resulted in a red card and as a result made things very difficult for them.PSG smelt blood the moment Araujo was sent off and started applying wave after wave of pressure on Barca which lead to goal a few minutes before half time from a former Barca player Ousmane Dembele. In the second half PSG continued to apply even more pressure and levelled the tie on aggregate after a cracker of a strike from Vitinha. Xavi was soon red carded after an angry outburst at the referee and it didn't get any better for Barca because PSG would soon score again after Joao Cancelo conceded a careless penalty, needlessly tackling Dembele in a non-threatening position inside the box. Despite these setbacks, Barcelona had moments in the game in which they could have turned thigs around like when Gundogan struck the post and when Lewandowski decided to go for glory instead of squaring the ball for a teammate in a Barcelona transition.PS would finally kill off the game in the final minutes after chaos in the Barca penalty area led to a Kylian Mbappe strike.

PSG showed in this game that they have the ruthlessness to take advantage of favorable situations after scoring 4 unanswered goals against Barca after they got a red card in what was a deserved win. Mbappe got himself two goals despite having another game to forget, Vitinha and Ousmane Dembele had fantastic performances, scored again against Barcelona and they kept Barca quiet for longs periods in the game. Dembele has only scored 3 goals in all competitions this season and 2 have come against Barcelona. Judging by his body language during the tie there is a possibility that there might be some sort of bad blood between him and Barca. Barca on the other hand were just somewhat unlucky but it should serve as a deterrent for Ronald Araujo that refereeing in the Champions League is different from the one in Spain. There are been so many moments where he got away with rough fouls against opponent especially the likes of Vini Jnr among others. That's twice now he's gotten a red card this Season, the other one coming in a game against Real Madrid which they also lost 4-1. Xavi's main mistake in the match was substituting Lamine Yamal. He should have rather sacrificed Lewandowski or Raphinha because he was Barca's only effective attacking threat. It's likely he would have gotten the better of Nuno Mendes throughout the match if he had stayed which could have helped created dangerous moments for Barca in the final third. Barca struggled to counter at times in the match because they were constantly losing the ball in the attacking phase and couldn't make the most of the few transitions they had in the second half and PSG made them pay dearly for it.

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