PARIS — Paris Saint-Germain fell short in their bid to reach a second UEFA Champions League final in four years with a 1-0 loss at home to Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday which completed a 2-0 aggregate defeat for the French giants. Mats Hummels popped up with the German goal after 50 minutes and Edin Terzic’s side managed to survive an onslaught for the remainder of the second leg at Parc des Princes to complete a superbly efficient two-legged showing.
PSG looked for so much of the game like they wanted the win which would have taken them to Wembley for the final but the familiar issues from the opening leg in front of goal did not go away and Luis Enrique’s men somehow did not even find the net over 180 minutes. Les Parisiens will look back at Warren Zaire-Emery hitting the post moments before Hummels struck the killer blow or Nuno Mendes and Kylian Mbappe hitting the woodwork but it was also the double post incident from the first leg, Fabian Ruiz’s missed header and Ousmane Dembele blazing over.
Here’s Dortmund’s goal:
PSG had an xG of 3.22 on 30 shots, the highest xG tally without scoring in a UCL match in nearly five years since Napoli vs. Genk in 2019. Across the two legs, PSG recorded 4.92 xG without scoring.
Going with a different look
The prolific Goncalo Ramos was given a chance in the starting XI by Luis Enrique but the Portugal international looked almost too fired up to score and snatched at all of his opportunities in each half before Bradley Barcola came back into the fold. A raucous home crowd did their best to lift the players and it would have been impossible not to be motivated to play in front of such a cauldron-like atmosphere but it was not enough — some might argue it was too much — for the players to get the job done.
Make no mistake, this was not just a Champions League semifinal defeat — this was a crushing loss in what was arguably the most favorable route to the final and PSG’s best chance in years to get their hands on the trophy that they covet the most. There will be questions over the makeup of this Parisien squad and whether Hummels’ winning goal illustrated the experienced hand which Paris are now missing after last summer’s youthful rejuvenation of this side.
Certain reinforcements have fallen short of expectations so far with an inability to call upon Milan Skriniar, necessitating the midseason acquisition of Lucas Beraldo, who once again looked out of his depth in defeat here. Lucas Hernandez’s season and possibly year-ending injury in the first leg was hugely influential in that problematic central defensive headache with the France international a model of consistency and versatility until his untimely surgery.
What’s next
Luis Enrique also has questions to answer regarding his over-frequent chopping and changing of his starting XIs and the unbalanced nature of some of his team selections but the truth is that the Spaniard brought a largely young and inexperienced group further than expected. PSG reaching the final might have created an unrealistic impression of a perfect rebuild of this squad which is far from the truth and its collective limits were laid bare for all to see here with second-half substitutions unable to undo the damage done at Signal Iduna Park and then by Hummels.
The Parc des Princes crowd witnessed a one-goal defeat as it did in the semifinals back in 1994-95 to Milan but this one is likely to hurt more given how much of a golden opportunity it was for the French champions to reach the final and potentially bring home the big one. Mbappe, though, is perhaps the biggest loser of all going without a goal and much involvement over the two legs ahead of his expected move to Real Madrid, who may well reach the final on Wednesday against Bayern Munich despite him.
