In dire quest of Champions League glory, French League giants, Paris Saint Germain recently starched the team with the signing of seven-time World Best Footballer, Messi, Sergio Ramos, Donnarumma, Giorgio Wijnaldum.
But despite these signings that made the team star-studded, they have failed to deliver the Champions League as they have been sent parking from the competition by Carlo Ancelotti’s Real Madrid.
A Karim Benzema’s hattrick saw Madrid defeat PSG 3-1 to progress to the last eight of the European Cup, 3-2 on aggregate.
With Ligue 1 looking like a weekly footnote in the global game and the PSG project always motivated by the sole goal of winning the Champions League, PSG’s season came crashing down in spectacular fashion on when Benzema scored a hat trick to reverse PSG’s 1-0 advantage from the first leg.
At half-time, Mauricio Pochettino’s men looked in total control when Kylian Mbappe, who also scored PSG’s goal in the first leg, got on the scoreboard.
However Real Madrid’s midfield maestro Modric and Benzema turned the match around. It had seemed impossible for PSG to lose and yet again the Parisians found a way.
Remarkably, Benzema, excelling in his positioning and link-up play, scored his hat trick in the space of 19 minutes in the second half, prompting a complete PSG meltdown, an all too familiar sight in the Champions League.
Speaking after the match, PSG’s coach said “Explaining what happened is easy, Donnarumma was fouled on the first goal and that changed everything”.
“It’s hard not to talk about this big refereeing mistake, which I don’t understand and won’t forgive. I don’t understand why the referee didn’t call VAR. From this action, everything changed in the stadium, our players were upset, even if we must recognize that we made mistakes. But when emotion gets involved, football changes completely.
“I am very angry and frustrated by this situation. This is the worst that could happen to us. We lost the game in ten minutes. For me, Benzema’s fault on Donnarumma is a mistake and that changed everything.”
It is important to note that Messi has failed to deliver the Champions League since he last won it in 2015 with Barcelona.
A front three forward of Messi, Neymar and Mbappe had given the club high hopes that they would deliver the coveted Champions League, but again, they failed.
