Barcelona players "woke up on Thursday morning to headlines praising their heroics" after Barça beat Paris St. Germain 6-1 at the Camp Nou to overturn a 4-0 deficit and reach the Champions League quarterfinals, according to ESPN.com. Barcelona was "on the brink of exiting the competition" after Edinson Cavani's strike in the 62nd minute left Barça "needing to score three more goals to progress." Brazilian forward Neymar scored twice before setting up Sergi Roberto to score the winner and knock PSG out of the Champions League, 6-5 on aggregate. Spanish media, which had been "highly critical" after the 4-0 loss in Paris, was "euphoric." Only Madrid-based AS "dwelled on referee Deniz Aytekin's performance," pointing to his "home bias calls." The French media, meanwhile, "was heavily critical of PSG's performance."
Barcelona-based Mundo Deportivo wrote, "These heroes beat Paris Saint Germain 6-1, made millions of barcelonistas happy and managed for FC Barcelona to make history."
Barcelona-based Sport wrote, "Barça once again enters the history of world football. The best generation of footballers that our eyes have witnessed wrote one of the most beautiful, exciting and electric pages in all European competitions and achieved the last feat that they needed to conquer. ... The team came out of the changing room convinced that the impossible was possible, and the world fell apart for PSG."
Marca wrote, "The day in which Messi was not at his best, Neymar carried the weight of his team's attacking responsibility. ... After a game that will give plenty to talk about, Neymar not only achieved his team's passage to the quarterfinals of the Champions League but has successfully settled in the pinnacle of football."
IN FRANCE:
L'Équipe wrote, "Paris Saint-Germain made history yesterday evening. And wrote one of its most humiliating pages during an evening that should never have gotten away from them. Here they are out of the Champions League before spring has even started, knocked out by a Barça which has nothing of an ogre about them, and become the first club eliminated from European competition having won the first leg 4-0." Le Parisien went with the headline, "Will PSG recover from this?" The paper wrote, "There was a funeral atmosphere around PSG when they left the Camp Nou. All the same, they have to quickly put this disappointment behind them." France Football's headline was, "PSG fall from very, very high up," and the publication added, "They had assured us before the game: despite the very big scoreline in the first leg, the Parisians weren't counting on coming to the Camp Nou to defend. Even so, that's what they did from the start of the game. The problem is that they did it very badly. Grouped together in their own final third and deprived of the ball by an opponent who was waiting just for that, they gave their opponents the stick with which to beat them" (
ESPN.com, 3/9).
COMING TO GRIPS: In London, Elliott Bretland reported PSG President Nasser Al-Khelaifi said that Wednesday's loss is "very difficult to accept." He "cut a frustrated and disappointed figure" at full-time, saying, "Even if we should have had two penalties, we're not looking for excuses. We didn't play in the first half. After winning the first leg 4-0, it's very difficult to accept losing the second 6-1, but we don't have a choice. After our first-leg win, the aim of reaching the quarterfinals was legitimate, but we know in football that that doesn't mean anything. ... To concede three times in seven minutes when we had been trailing 3-1 after 88 minutes is very hard. I haven't spoken to the players yet, it's not the right time. Everyone is annoyed, it's normal. We're going to calm ourselves down" (DAILY MAIL, 3/9).
NO RUSH: The PA reported FIFA President Gianni Infantino said that Barcelona's comeback victory showed that football's lawmakers "should be careful with adjusting the rules." He added that video assistant referees will ensure "clear mistakes" will be corrected, although he "refused to comment on the controversial penalty award" for a foul on Luis Suárez that resulted in Barça's fifth goal. VARs are "being introduced gradually on a trial basis" and replays showed contact between Suárez and Marquinhos was "minimal." Infantino: "What we saw was an incredible football match, whatever the result would have been at the end. This shows that football is really a fantastic game. ... We have to really be careful in the IFAB [Int'l FA Board] if we want to touch the rules, because football is such an incredible game. In this case, I don't know if it was a clear mistake or not but, in future, when there are clear mistakes, this will be corrected by the video assistant referee so we can make sure decisive matches are not decided by mistakes" (PA, 3/9).
LOVE IN THE AIR?: MARCA reported Barcelona's Gerard Piqué said that thousands of fans would be "overjoyed by the result." Piqué: "The hospitals should hire more midwives within the next nine months because there is going to be a lot of lovemaking tonight. It will be a hard night for those who wanted us to lose, but the sun will return tomorrow" (MARCA, 3/9). EL PAÍS reported Catalonia President Carles Puigdemont compared Barcelona's comeback "to the political future of Catalonia." He said, "There is nothing impossible. Barça just demonstrated it playing football. Catalonia will demonstrate it by deciding its future" (EL PAIS, 3/9).
