Champions League hangover as PSG knock FC Barcelona out, advancing to the semifinals

What a night! What a night was experienced this Tuesday in Barcelona.

PSG once again overcame their ghosts and, against almost all odds, came from behind to defeat and rout FC Barcelona, eliminating them from the Champions League and advancing to the semifinals of the premier European competition.

A magical night filled with stories, full of key moments that will surely dominate the headlines in the coming days, weeks, months, perhaps. I’m sure this will be talked about for years.

I’m not sure how to articulate this text I’m writing, I don’t know where to start, but I’ll go with whatever comes to mind. And the first thing that comes to mind when I think about PSG’s 4-1 victory over Barcelona isn’t Kylian Mbappe, it’s not Ousmane Dembele or his controversial celebrations, it’s not Luis Enrique, it’s Vitinha.

What a great player Vitinha is. He occupied all the spaces on the field, distributed the ball, and scored another goal. Impressive. Incredible player.

And now that I’ve highlighted an individual performance, I have to say, I don’t care what Kylian Mbappe does, or what he decides about his future, it’s not relevant. Paris Saint-Germain, the PSG board, I’m sure, have identified Luis Enrique as their key man, and the project revolves and will revolve solely around him as the coach.

I have no doubt that PSG’s roadmap involves handing over the keys of the project to Luis Enrique and letting him make whatever sporting decisions he sees fit.

That being said, I also want to highlight Kylian Mbappe’s performance, who scored a brace, unlike the first leg where he didn’t show up and was heavily criticized. In this match, let’s be honest, it wasn’t his greatest game either, we didn’t see a consistently dangerous Mbappe, but he delivered when he needed to. He scored the penalty and another goal, securing a brace.

Bradley Barcola and Ousmane Dembele also deserve recognition. I had my doubts, not about them individually, but about Luis Enrique’s decision to play without a nominal number 9, that is, without Goncalo Ramos, or even without Randal Kolo Muani.

Playing with two wingers and Mbappe, who we usually see drifting towards the left side, seemed a bit risky to me, let’s put it that way, but they continue to impress me. Dembele has only scored three goals this season and two of them have been against Barcelona in PSG’s last two matches.

On the other hand, Bradley Barcola, who provoked Ronald Araujo’s dismissal and constantly posed a threat, unbalanced the Blaugrana defense. What can I say about this great kid? A brilliant future awaits him.

Regardless of what happens in the semifinals, where PSG will face Borussia Dortmund, whom they already faced in the group stage of this same edition of the Champions League, we can say that PSG has already proven that they are on the right path.

The last two seasons, PSG wasn’t playing European football in April. They didn’t have cup commitments around this time either. Today, in addition to having a not overwhelming but significant lead in Ligue 1, they are still alive in the Coupe de France, they’re also alive in the Champions League, and they’ve advanced to the semifinals.

In other words, they’re once again among the top four teams in Europe and the world. And last year, that wasn’t the case at all, nor the year before.

Considering Lionel Messi, Marco Verratti, Neymar, and Sergio Ramos have left, all the tactical changes that have been made, new coach, new philosophy, a bunch of new players like Bradley Barcola, Kang-In Lee, Ousmane Dembele, Manuel Ugarte, Goncalo Ramos, Randal Kolo Muani... Considering it’s a newly born project, PSG has at least proven that they’re heading in the right direction.

And regardless of what happens in the Champions League semifinals, PSG has already won.