Flashbacks of past capitulations were fresh in the mind as Barcelona nearly contrived to give up a four-goal lead.
Barcelona coach Hansi Flick said he had to remind his disappointed players they had reached the Champions League semifinal after Tuesday's 3-1 loss to Borussia Dortmund.
Enjoy Tuesday's UEFA Champions League quarterfinal action as Borussia Dortmund took on Barcelona and Aston Villa took on Paris Saint-Germain.
Five-time European champions Barcelona reached their first Champions League semi-final in six seasons with a 5-3 aggregate victory despite being beaten 3-1 by Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday.
Unai Emery will always shudder at mention of La Remontada. It came to define his time as the manager of Paris Saint-Germain, the inexplicable Champions League defeat by Luis Enrique’s Barcelona in 2017 after his team had held a 4-0 first-leg lead. Barcelona would end up needing three goals with 88 minutes of the second leg gone at the Camp Nou. They got them for a 6-5 aggregate victory. On an epic night at Villa Park, the roles were reversed – and so nearly to cathartic effect for Emery. His Villa team were magnificent. They refused to believe that this showpiece Champions League quarter-final was over after Luis Enrique’s PSG surged into a 2-0 lead on the night for a 5-1 aggregate advantage, the goals coming from their flying full-backs, Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes. Continue reading...
In the end, it was comfortable enough for Barcelona, despite Serhou Guirassy’s hat-trick. They weren’t able to hold the ball in trademark fashion and command through possession but they always had clear water. There were times, though, when they were distinctly uneasy and, but for an own goal that came at just the right time for them, this might have been a very awkward evening. It may ultimately have been a second leg negotiated without too much jeopardy, but it was a tie that raised doubts about them as potential champions. There is much to admire about Hansi Flick’s Spanish league leaders but theirs is a high-risk game and more precise opponents than Dortmund might have exposed them. Continue reading...
Fourth spell begins for club’s eighth head coach in less than three seasons, in wake of fourth defeat in a row Just before two o’clock on Palm Sunday, as Holy Week began and religious brotherhoods started their slow, swaying progress through the streets of Seville, first La Paz, then La Hiniesta, then the rest, a man entered the city at Santa Justa. Aged 69, diagnosed with leukaemia five years ago, wearing a grey cardigan, blue jacket and a slightly manic smile, he’s thinner than before but couldn’t be more familiar. Joaquín Caparrós has coached Sevilla more times than anyone, across three spells, the first a quarter of a century ago; now he was returning for a fourth. “My face is a reflection; it says it all,” he said, leaving the station and stopping on the corner, searching for the car coming for him. Caparrós arrived on a train, alone and as their saviour. As somebody’s saviour, anyway: someone to get behind, someone to hide behind too, for a little while. Two days earlier Sevilla had lost 1-0 at Valencia. That night, manager Xavier García Pimienta said he would be with his players until the end of the world but he didn’t make it to the end of the weekend. On Thursday, the president José Maria del Nido Carrasco had declared it “time to be close to the coaching staff” and on Saturday they took training as normal; 24 hours later, they had been sacked. Caparrós had already been called. He will be their eighth coach in less than three seasons. Continue reading...
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