A late Kylian Mbappe goal from the first leg was all that separated Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain. Going into the second leg, there were doubts whether the Frenchman would be fit in time to make the squad, let alone the first eleven. He did, and it was through him that PSG created a bulk of their early chances and eventually scored the first goal of the second leg.
Mbappe wheeled away in celebration thrice during the ninety minutes, but only once did it count. Sandwiched between two goals which were ruled out for offside, was the strike which put the Parisians 1-0 up on the night – and 2-0 on aggregate.
Mbappe scored in the 39th minute, running into an ocean of empty space behind the Real Madrid defensive line, standing up to David Alaba, and then beating Thibaut Courtois with an unstoppable shot at his near post.
The tie turned on its head when, put under pressure by Karim Benzema, Gianluigi Donnarumma squandered possession to Vinicius Jr inside his box. A simple pass from the Brazilian set Benzema up for his first goal of the night in the 61st minute. His second came from a quick break, during which Los Blancos piled men forward before Luka Modric played the France international through on goal with a perfectly-weighted pass that he capitalized on fully to level the scores on aggregate.
Right after conceding the goal, straight from the kick-off, PSG gave the ball away to Vinicius, and while Marquinhos got back in time to clear the ball away, he could do so only as far as Benzema, whose first-time shot caught Donnarumma – and all those present in the stadium – by surprise. Lionel Messi whizzed a late free-kick just over the bar for the Parisians, but the Galacticos held on to complete a memorable comeback and progress to the quarters.
Elsewhere, Manchester City joined Real, Liverpool, and Bayern Munich in the last eight despite a 0-0 draw against Sporting Club. The Citizens had beaten the Portuguese champions 5-0 in the first-leg and came close to compounding their lead on several occasions.
Gabriel Jesus did have the ball in the net for City before being called back by VAR, while Marcus Edwards was a rare bright spark for Sporting, in an otherwise forgettable tie for the Portuguese outfit.
