David Hytner was at the Parc des Princes tonight. Here’s his report. Thanks for reading this MBM. Nighty night.
Mats Hummels secured a return to Wembley for Dortmund, as PSG hit the woodwork four times but couldn’t find a way through
Updated
Tue 7 May 2024 17.27 EDT
First published on Tue 7 May 2024 13.30 EDT
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Key events
Luis Enrique speaks to TNT: “A tight match … we deserved to win that match … we created 31 shots and hit four posts … in the two matches we hit the post six times … we didn’t score a goal, it’s unbelievable … football is so unfair sometimes … not six posts, but three goals, it would be great … but congratulations to them, they are a great team … they did it great … I hope and wish they can go to the final and win it … our job is trying to create something positive … now is a sad moment … we need to create something special next year and try to win that competition.”
Edin Terzic talks to TNT Sports: “If I have to pick one word it is proud … the dream is not over yet … we suffered a lot but we showed a very good away game against a team that is so powerful up front … we kept two clean sheets … we won both games in the semi-final … it was an outstanding team performance … without that you have no chance to keep a clean sheet … we were the better team in the first half … in the second half it was passionate … do everything to block shots and crosses … going to Wembley sounds good!”
Here’s a damning stat from PSG’s perspective: they made 31 attempts tonight, but only got five on target. Admittedly four others hit the frame of the goal, but on target is on target is on target. On the flip side, replays suggest that Mats Hummels caught Ousmane Dembélé right on the white line of the penalty box, and that PSG were very unfortunate not to get a spot kick … but factor in Nuno Mendes’s unpunished shove on Niclas Füllkrug in the first leg, and perhaps the football gods have maintained the karmic equilibrium there.
Borussia Dortmund therefore reach their third Champions League final. They won their first in 1997, beating Juventus 3-1 in Munich, Karl-Heinz Riedle, Lars Ricken, all that. They lost their second, though, Jurgen Klopp’s side going down 2-1 to Bayern at Wembley in 2013. Der BVB have a chance to right that wrong at the same venue next month … and may even do so against the same opposition. Real Madrid will have a word or two to say about that tomorrow night. Whoever Dortmund meet in the final, they’ll be the underdogs, but they’ve proven over both legs against PSG that such a status is no barrier to deserved victory. Meanwhile poor PSG’s wait for a maiden Champions League win goes on.
Borussia Dortmund rode their luck defensively at times. PSG hit the woodwork six times in this tie, four times tonight. The ball simply wouldn’t go in for the French champions. But you make your own good fortune, too, and Dortmund defended with a collective zeal deserving of a few big breaks. Took their big chance, too. They tear off to the mini Yellow Wall that’s been built by the away fans in the corner, and celebrate as one. The rest of the Parc is in mourning, Luis Enrique mulling around with his dejected troops as Dortmund cavort in the corner. You have to feel for PSG, who threw everything they had at their opponents, but over the piece it’s hard to deny Dortmund, who deservedly make it through to Wembley after two extremely entertaining, electric legs.
FULL TIME: Paris Saint-Germain 0-1 Borussia Dortmund (agg 0-2)
The whistle goes, and Dortmund are going to a Champions League final at Wembley again!
90 min +4: Ascensio plays Mbappe clear down the middle … only for Mbappe to slip over. Some cheap symbolism of the 180 minutes, right there.
90 min +3: Credit to the fans inside the Parc des Princes, the German fans aren’t the only ones still making noise. Kári Tulinius reports: “Though it doesn’t look like PSG’s fans will grace Wembley with their presence, they have been magnificent tonight, singing, clapping, chanting, drumming, shouting and making glorious noise all night long.”
90 min +2: PSG have hammered at the door, but it’s refused to budge. And suddenly they look out of ideas. Dortmund are surely in the Wembley final.
90 min +1: Dortmund have defended like monsters, though. And here’s another example as Mbappe prepares to enter the box down the middle, only for Schlotterbeck to lean in from the right and put him off. Mbappe falls over and claims a penalty, but it’s a desperate shout and the referee is quite rightly not interested.
90 min: PSG have now hit the woodwork six times in this tie. Sometimes it’s just not meant to be. Or is it? They’ve got four minutes to find the net twice and force extra time.
88 min: Actually, Kobel might have got a hand to that Mbappe shot. PSG keep on keepin’ on, and an increasingly desperate Vitinha has a whack from the best part of 30 yards. It’s an absolute pearler, surely heading for the top right past a rooted Kobel … but the ball caroms off the underside of the crossbar and away! How on earth have PSG not scored?!
86 min: Mbappe hits the bar! There’s a game of pinball in the Dortmund box. Kobel flaps. Dortmund can’t clear. The ball sits up for Mbappe, who simply has to score, but shanks a shot off the top of the crossbar. Wow.
85 min: Felix Nmecha comes on for Julian Brandt.
84 min: Schlotterbeck slides out of play with the ball, then sits on it. Hakimi comes across to shove him off, and goes into the book for his trouble.
83 min: PSG have taken 24 attempts at goal, but have only got four on target.
82 min: A free kick for PSG out on the right touchline, Schlotterbeck having upended Lee, who takes it himself and hits it long. Marquinhos wins a header at the far stick but can only send it wide left.
81 min: Another corner for PSG comes in from the left. Amid a melee, Mbappe attempts a backheel. Then Ascensio attempts to shoot through a thicket of legs. No luck. The ball’s half cleared. Then Mbappe works his way down the right and shoots, Kobel turning around the post for yet another corner. Hummels deals with it, but this is backs-to-the-wall stuff from Dortmund now, as PSG engage Kitchen Sink mode.
79 min: Barcola has looked lively since coming on. He wins a corner down the left. The set piece is worked back to Vitinha, whose adventurous shot is blocked by Hummels.
77 min: Dortmund have the ball in the net again! But it won’t count. Brandt wins a corner with a bustle down the right. From the set piece, Hummels hooks a ball dropping over his shoulder into the top left … but he was miles offside in meeting the knock-down. For a nanosecond, the Parc fell silent.
76 min: Lee Kang-in comes on for Warren Zaïre-Emery.
75 min: Hakimi and Dembele attempt to complete a one-two down the inside-right channel. The former goes over after feeling Reus’s arm lightly brush his shoulder. He wants a penalty, but come off it and come on. Dembele, incensed, hysterically slide-tackles Schlotterbeck and goes into the book for his loss of noggin.
74 min: “PSG do look rattled, but I’m getting shades of the World Cup final where Mbappe single handedly dragged an abject France team back from the same scoreline,” observes Ted Graves. On that subject, Mbappe barges in from the left before lifting a harmless shot over the bar from distance. Dortmund haven’t given him much of a sniff tonight.
72 min: On the touchline, Luis Enrique looks on with a mixture of concern and disbelief. A bit reminiscent of his Curb lookalike Richard Lewis finding Larry David selling cars.
70 min: Hummels takes a Nuno Mendes cross full in the face and takes the opportunity to go down, much to Vitinha’s hopping-mad dismay. The clock now BVB’s friend.
68 min: PSG have been battering at the door since conceding, so Edin Terzic bolsters his back line by sacrificing Sancho for Sule.
67 min: Hummels is booked for the tackle. Asensio then batters a clueless free kick straight into the wall. They want a penalty, again, suggesting the ball pinged up off Maatsen’s arm, but there’s nothing doing there either.
66 min: Dembele bursts down the inside-right channel only to be upended by Hummels. The referee points to the spot … only to change his mind immediately! Just a free kick outside the box. And he’s right, though there was only an inch or two in it. VAR double-checks and it’s just a free kick to the right of the D. Wow.
64 min: Barcola’s immediately into the thick of it, being dragged back by Sabitzer while in full flight down the middle. Sabitzer goes into the book.
62 min: Nuno Mendes cuts one back from the left. Gonçalo Ramos leans back and sends another shot over the bar from 12 yards! It’s Ramos’s last act of the evening; he’s replaced by Marco Asensio, while Fabián Ruiz makes way for Bradley Barcola.
61 min: Hakimi wins a corner down the right. The corner’s half cleared. Nuno Mendes, romping in from the left, meets the ball on the edge of the D and hammers a sensational shot off the base of the right-hand post. Kobel rooted to the spot! PSG so close to levelling the score on the evening and getting back into the tie. That’s the second time they’ve hit that post since the restart!
60 min: Dembele and Vitinha combine at speed down the right, the latter crossing low and hard for Gonçalo Ramos, who leans back on the penalty spot and larrups a riser over the bar. A big chance to work Kobel passes by.
58 min: Then again, should Mbappe find something … but his run down the left here is stopped by the tireless Sancho, diligently doing his defensive duty.
57 min: PSG look utterly rattled. All of a sudden, they’re all over the shop. A lot of gaps appearing at the back. If Dortmund keep their foot to the floor here, a killer blow to put this tie beyond the hosts may not be long in coming.
56 min: Adeyemi is replaced by club legend Reus.
55 min: … and for a second, it looks as though the referee gives a penalty, Schlotterbeck going over in the box as the corner comes in. But he’s signalling for offside.
54 min: PSG are teetering on the edge here. Sancho and Ryerson combine to earn a corner down the right. Brandt to take …
53 min: Speaking of Beraldo, he copped for a slight shove in the back by Hummels seconds before the goal. Some justice after the one Nuno Mendes got away with on Niclas Füllkrug in the first leg?
51 min: PSG will be absolutely shattered, moments after Zaïre-Emery hit the post. They’ll need to clear their heads quickly, too, because Beraldo is very fortunate not to concede a free kick for obstruction as Sancho bursts down the right. The referee giving the hosts the benefit of the doubt there.
GOAL! PSG 0-1 Borussia Dortmund (Hummels 50); agg 0-2
Under pressure from Adeyemi, Marquinhos clanks another poor backpass towards Donnarumma, who can’t keep the ball in play. The corner’s sent long from the left. Hummels rises at the far stick and, unmarked, bashes an unstoppable header down and into the bottom-right corner. Dortmund extend their lead!
49 min: That came from a quickly-taken corner. PSG have clearly been given the what-for and told to step it up by Luis Enrique.
47 min: Hakimi storms down the right and hits his cross low and hard. Ryerson deflects it wide left. Dortmund don’t deal with the resulting corner. Mbappe crosses from the left. Sabitzer eyebrows towards the far stick, where Zaïre-Emery has to score … but he slaps his shot against the right-hand upright and out! This tie should be level.
46 min: The atmosphere remains electric. Another red pyro party has broken out behind Donnarumma’s goal.
Dortmund get the second half underway. No changes. “A rather cagey first half from both sides, painfully aware of what’s at stake, enlivened by the splendid Adeyemi whose irrepressible athleticism is a joy to behold,” writes Colum Fordham. “His solo run was glorious and even when he was knocked over, he got up with a wonderful back flip. A ray of light in an otherwise error-srewn first half.”
Half-time entertainment. The other semi-final is also delicately poised. Sid Lowe reports from Madrid, where it’ll all come down this time tomorrow.
HALF TIME: Paris Saint-Germain 0-0 Borussia Dortmund (agg 0-1)
BVB take one step closer to Wembley.
45 min: Mbappe probes down the inside-right channel. He rolls the ball across to Fabián Ruiz, who hits a wild shot that deflects off Schlotterbeck and inches wide of the left-hand post. Kobel was rooted. Nothing comes of the resulting corner, but that could have been disastrous for Dortmund.
44 min: Maatsen throws long from the left. Füllkrug wins a header in the PSG box but there’s nobody there to take advantage of the knockdown.
42 min: Vitinha sends a swerving but basically harmless shot straight at Kobel from distance.
41 min: Brandt has the opportunity to release Adeyemi into space down the left but faffs, allowing Marquinhos to strip him of possession. Füllkrug was way off the play, but appears to be moving freely.
39 min: Well, this is weird. Nobody comes on to see to Füllkrug, who eventually gets up again. That’s good to see, but all slightly strange. Then Mbappe and Gonçalo Ramos restart the game by giving the ball back to Dortmund … but only knocking it out for a throw deep in the visiting team’s territory. Schlotterbeck not happy. The referee tells him to pipe down.
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