Barca celebrates ‘miracle’ upset
Print Edition
JOYOUS fans mobbed Neymar and Lionel Messi after Barcelona’s sensational 6-1 victory produced the greatest upset in UEFA Champions League history.
Trailing 0-4 going into the last 16 game against Paris Saint-Germain, Neymar scored two of the three amazing goals in the final seven minutes that sent the nearly 100,000 crowd into raptures. The whole football world was stunned.
Adoring, disbelieving fans surrounded Messi’s car as he tried to get away from the Nou Camp stadium after the 6-5 aggregate triumph.
PSG players left the field in tears. When they arrived back in France, dozens of cursing fans waited in the pre-dawn dark. Police started an investigation after the sports car of defender Thiago Motta hit and injured a fan as he drove away.
No team has overcome a four goal first leg deficit in the UCL and Barcelona newspaper Sport declared on its front page “You have become legends.” El Mundo daily called it the “miracle of a lifetime”.
Brazil superstar Neymar presided over the 7-minute finale that plunged PSG into a nightmare. He scored an 88th-minute free kick and a penalty in the 91st before setting up Sergi Roberto’s clincher in the 5th minute of injury time.
After earlier goals by Luis Suarez, Layvin Kurzawa’s own goal and Messi’s penalty, Barcelona’s hopes took a blow when Edinson Cavani smashed in just after the hour mark.
Neymar’s antics sealed a 6-1 win on the night, 6-5 overall. “I know that we have made history. A team like this can do anything,” Neymar said.
Midfielder Ivan Rakitic said: “It’s crazy. After Paris, many people spoke hard about our team but tonight was special, we made history.”
As well as staying in the race for a sixth title, the 1992, 2006, 2009, 2011 and 2015 European champion set a new record by reaching its 10th straight quarterfinal.
The win recalled Manchester United’s injury-time double to win the 1999 title against Bayern Munich at the same stadium, and Liverpool’s victory in the 2005 final after being 0-3 down to AC Milan at half-time.
“It is a difficult night to explain with words,” said Barca boss Luis Enrique.
“It was a horror movie, not a drama, with a Nou Camp that I have seen very few times as a player or coach.
“What defines this victory is the faith that the players and fans had.”
Enrique announced in the fallout of Barcelona’s 0-4 defeat in Paris that he would leave at the end of the season.
The French press scrambled to find words harsh enough to describe PSG’s shame. “Crushed, trampled on, humiliated,” said Le Figaro newspaper. And the result has now raised questions about the future of PSG coach Unai Emery, as club president Nasser al-Khelaifi ominously called it “very hard to accept”.
“This is a nightmare for everybody. Is Unai Emery still credible? This is not the moment to talk of this. After the game, we are all upset,” said the Qatari.
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