Paris Saint-Germain advanced to the Champions League round of 16 on Wednesday evening, but the defending champions required a Monaco red card to unlock the tie, trailing on the night until the 59th minute and conceding a stoppage-time goal that made for a more anxious conclusion than the 5-4 aggregate scoreline might suggest, a performance that coach Luis Enrique assessed without flattery and that raised questions about PSG’s consistency in the competition’s knockout phase.
The tie turned on the dismissal of Mamadou Coulibaly, who collected two yellow cards in the space of three minutes, the second for a foul on Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, and was sent off in the 58th minute. Monaco had been leading 1-0 on the night and the aggregate was level at 3-3 when the 21-year-old midfielder received his marching orders.
From the resulting free kick, Marquinhos tucked into the back of the net from inside the six-yard box after getting on the end of Désiré Doué’s low cross to put PSG ahead both on the night and on aggregate. Six minutes later, Kvaratskhelia scored from close range after Philipp Köhn parried Achraf Hakimi’s 20-metre effort into his path.
The first half had belonged to Monaco by the objective measures of the game. Monaco led the corner count four to nil and edged first-half expected goals 0.82 to 0.48, with three shots on target to none for PSG in the opening period. PSG had their best first-half moment when Bradley Barcola struck the crossbar, but they were trailing on the night when Akliouche put the visitors ahead, converting with a cool finish from Aladji Bamba’s pass on the stroke of half-time.
Earlier, Coulibaly had blazed over from close range after Akliouche had played him through inside the penalty area, a miss that Monaco would later identify as decisive.
Jordan Teze’s stoppage-time equaliser came too late for Monaco. His goal arrived when a ball into the PSG box was not cleared and Teze was on hand to convert at the far post in the 91st minute, reducing the aggregate deficit to one but leaving Monaco with insufficient time to complete the comeback. The final whistle confirmed PSG’s progression on a 5-4 aggregate, having won the first leg 3-2 at Monaco the previous week, a first leg in which Monaco had also been reduced to ten men when Wilfried Singo received a red card.
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Monaco received red cards in both legs of the tie, the first time a team had been reduced to ten men in both legs of a Champions League knockout fixture. There have been 33 red cards across the Champions League this season, more dismissals than in any previous campaign in the competition’s history. Monaco manager Sébastien Pocognoli was left to contemplate what his side might have achieved across both legs with eleven players for the full 180 minutes. They had matched PSG for much of both encounters and, as the statistics confirmed, had the better of the first halves in both.
Luis Enrique’s assessment of his team’s display was direct. “Did I like what I saw? No, I didn’t like it. But that’s football,” he said.
“In the first half we were very imprecise, but in the second half we were in control, we scored both goals. It was the perfect result, but in the last few minutes we conceded that goal and it was dangerous at the end.” He characterised PSG’s group stage draw, which had included Atalanta, Barcelona, Bayer Leverkusen, Bayern Munich, Newcastle United, Sporting, and Tottenham Hotspur, as the most demanding of any side in the competition.
“If there’s one team that has played against good teams and had the toughest group, it’s clearly us,” he said, before acknowledging the road ahead with a degree of humour. “Next time it will be even easier, with Chelsea or Barca, right?”
PSG produced 2.13 expected goals from 21 shots across the 90 minutes, against Monaco’s 1.16 from nine attempts, but were held scoreless for 59 minutes of the second leg and conceded twice across a tie in which their numerical advantage proved to be the decisive factor in both encounters. The champions’ margin for error had been thinner than any neutral observer would have expected from the team that won the tournament last spring.
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The wider picture from Tuesday and Wednesday’s playoff second legs produced a round of 16 field containing PSG alongside Atlético Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Newcastle United, Atalanta, Real Madrid, and Juventus, the last having survived one of the more dramatic reversals of the competition’s recent history, winning 3-0 against Galatasaray at the Allianz Stadium after being 5-2 down on aggregate, only to concede twice in extra time as the Turkish side advanced on aggregate. Inter Milan’s elimination by Norwegian side Bodø/Glimt, who won 2-1 in Milan on Tuesday to go through on away goals, was the evening’s other major upset.
Real Madrid joined PSG in the last 16 after beating Benfica 2-1 at the Bernabéu. The draw for the round of 16, quarter-finals, and semi-finals is scheduled for Friday.
Hakimi, whose goal contribution was central to PSG’s second goal, played Wednesday’s tie a day after being ordered to stand trial in a rape case in France. The full-back has denied all allegations.
