9 Mar 2024 22.02 GMT Poor Kylian Mbappé, who for the want of a few inches here and
there, would 🏧 have been celebrating a hat-trick tonight. But two of his goals were
chalked off for offside, correctly so, after which 🏧 point the entire Parisian edifice
crumbled. Having dominated for most of the tie, they collectively Devon Loch-ed it
along the 🏧 final stretch, and a spirited Real Madrid, propelled by the genius of Karim
Benzema and Luka Modrić, snatched the quarter-final 🏧 place from under their nose. An
abject capitulation by the visitors, who can file this latest one alongside Barcelona
and 🏧 Manchester United. Lionel Messi walks away from the crime scene with a blank look
on his face, and he’s got 🏧 some admin to do as well, popping this debacle next to Roma,
Liverpool and Bayern Munich on his personal résumé. 🏧 What an evening at the
Bernabeu!
Updated at 22.25 GMT
9 Mar 2024 21.54 GMT FULL TIME: Real Madrid 3-1 PSG
(agg: 🏧 3-2) All hail 16-minute hat-trick hero Karim Benzema! What a sensational comeback
by Real! But what a capitulation by PSG. 🏧 They suffer another embarrassing exit from the
Champions League. They’re making a habit of this ... as is Lionel Messi. 🏧 What a game!
Real Madrid’s hat-trick hero Karim Benzema celebrates after the final whistle.
Photograph: Susana Vera/Reuters Real Madrid’s Luka 🏧 Modric celebrates a famous victory.
Photograph: Manu Fernández/AP
Updated at 22.24 GMT
9 Mar 2024 21.52 GMT 90 min +4:
Mbappe runs 🏧 the ball out for a goal kick, and Real are so close now to the completion
of an outrageous comeback.
9 🏧 Mar 2024 21.52 GMT 90 min +3: Modric wins the ball in
midfield, then Benzema takes the ball to the 🏧 corner. The home fans crack out a few
yelps of delight as the passes stick. You know the sort.
9 Mar 🏧 2024 21.51 GMT 90 min
+2: Vinicius is clipped on the halfway line and takes the opportunity to go down 🏧 in the
clock-management style.
9 Mar 2024 21.50 GMT 90 min +1: In the first of four added
minutes, Messi sends 🏧 the free kick towards the top-right corner ... but it’s always
heading over the bar. Huge cheers, for more than 🏧 one reason as well. Oh Lionel.
9 Mar
2024 21.49 GMT 90 min: Neymar romps into Real territory with options to 🏧 his left and
right. Before he can decide what to do, he’s fouled by Camavinga. Free kick, 30 yards
out 🏧 in a central position. Messi’s eyes light up.
9 Mar 2024 21.48 GMT 89 min: PSG’s
final roll of the dice: 🏧 Draxler comes on for Hakimi. Modric then sashays right to left
across the face of the Real box and aims 🏧 a shot towards the top left. Inches wide and
high. So close to wrapping this up.
9 Mar 2024 21.47 GMT 🏧 88 min: Can Mbappe rescue this
situation for PSG? He powers down the inside-left channel and is cynically checked by
🏧 Vazquez, who goes into the book. Nothing comes of the resulting free kick.
9 Mar 2024
21.46 GMT 86 min: Rodrygo 🏧 batters the free kick into the wall, then slices the rebound
well wide right. PSG are all over the shop. 🏧 This is an astonishing turnaround and
capitulation, even by their own historical standards.
9 Mar 2024 21.45 GMT 85 min:
Vinicius 🏧 has the opportunity to put this tie to bed, but as he makes good down the
left, he stands on 🏧 the ball. Then Benzema has a run down the right. PSG just about hack
clear. Then Kimpembe, who has just 🏧 been booked, sticks out a leg to bring down Rodrygo.
No second yellow, but a free kick in a very 🏧 dangerous position.
9 Mar 2024 21.43 GMT 83
min: Kimpembe is booked for throwing the ball into Vinicius’s chest in irritation, 🏧 then
barging him over. PSG have totally lost the nut. It’s a Champions League story as old
as time.
9 Mar 🏧 2024 21.41 GMT 81 min: PSG have to roll the dice now. Di Maria comes on
for Danilo. Hakimi, his 🏧 head gone, scythes through Vinicius and is booked for his
trouble. You don’t need me to tell you that the 🏧 Bernabeu is on a rolling boil. What an
atmosphere! What a comeback this will be ... if they pull it 🏧 of. Do PSG have a
response? That Donnarumma mistake suddenly seems so expensive.
9 Mar 2024 21.39 GMT 80
min: Not 🏧 a great 12 seconds of action for Marquinhos, the ball deflecting off him for
Benzema’s second, followed by the mistake 🏧 for the third. Another famous PSG
capitulation is on!
9 Mar 2024 21.38 GMT GOAL! Real Madrid 3-1 PSG (Benzema 78); 🏧 agg
3-2 This is sensational! Simply sensational! There’s a pause as VAR checks the
tie-equalising goal. It’s onside. A huge 🏧 roar. Then another huge roar as Real snaffle
the ball straight from the kick-off. Vinicius is sent scampering down the 🏧 left again.
Once again he’s swarmed. Marquinhos tries to clear, but only sends a flick across the
face of his 🏧 box towards Benzema, who steers an outrageous first-time shot into the
bottom right from the edge of the box. That 🏧 came 12 seconds after the restart! Real
Madrid’s Karim Benzema celebrates scoring their third goal with Luka Modric.
Photograph: Susana 🏧 Vera/Reuters
Updated at 22.08 GMT
9 Mar 2024 21.36 GMT GOAL! Real
Madrid 2-1 PSG (Benzema 76); agg 2-2 What a game 🏧 this is! Modric runs from deep inside
his own half, then releases Vinicius down the inside left. Vinicius is swarmed. 🏧 He
rolls across the face of goal for Modric, who plays a cute pass down the right channel
to find 🏧 Benzema, who spins and batters a shot past Donnarumma. We’re all level! Real
Madrid’s Karim Benzema thumps home their second 🏧 goal. Photograph: Susana Vera/Reuters
Benzema (centre) celebrates his second goal as Danilo Pereira of Paris Saint-Germain
(right) looks dejected. Photograph: 🏧 David Ramos/Getty Images
Updated at 22.26 GMT
9 Mar
2024 21.34 GMT 74 min: Modric comes sliding in on Messi and wins 🏧 a crunching,
old-school, 1980s-style tackle. The home fans really enjoyed that. The erstwhile
Barcelona man wears an inscrutable look as 🏧 he picks himself up and dusts himself down,
refusing to give the old enemy any more pleasure.
9 Mar 2024 21.33 🏧 GMT 73 min: But that
spirit’s far from sapped yet. PSG ship possession, the ball clanking around their own
box 🏧 and breaking to Vinicius, who leans back and hoicks over the bar when one on one
with Donnarumma, six yards 🏧 out! Then the visitors lose the ball again, Vinicius probing
again down the left only for Rodrygo to run the 🏧 ball out for a goal kick.
9 Mar 2024
21.31 GMT 72 min: The free kick leads to a corner on 🏧 the right. PSG opt to play it back
down the flank and play some more possession football designed purposefully to 🏧 sap the
Real spirit.
9 Mar 2024 21.30 GMT 71 min: PSG ping, ping, ping it around. Eventually
Militao gets fed 🏧 up and hangs a leg across Neymar who was attempting to break down the
left. Before the free kick can 🏧 be taken, PSG replace the booked Paredes with Gueye, a
decision no doubt influenced by the former getting away with 🏧 a clip on Benzema a couple
of minutes ago.
9 Mar 2024 21.27 GMT 69 min: PSG try to put the 🏧 lid back on with some
sterile possession in the middle of the park. They do a decent job, to be 🏧 fair, and the
home fans break out the irate whistles.
9 Mar 2024 21.26 GMT 67 min: Some admin:
Donnarumma was 🏧 booked for arguing the toss about Benzema’s challenge that led to the
mistake that led to the goal, while Real 🏧 replace Carvajal with Vasquez.
9 Mar 2024
21.25 GMT 65 min: Real win a corner on the left. Modric takes. It 🏧 breaks to Carvajal,
who sends a speculative drive into a packed box. PSG half clear it. A cross comes back
🏧 in from the right. Vinicius flicks towards the bottom right. Donnarumma is all over it,
and Militao was penalised for 🏧 a shove anyway.
9 Mar 2024 21.23 GMT 64 min: The roof of
the stadium nearly flies off as Benzema meets 🏧 a right-wing cross and sends a header
inches wide of the top right. Donnarumma wasn’t necessarily getting to that, had 🏧 it
been on target. On the touchline, Pochettino quietly fumes at his team’s sudden loss of
equilibrium.
9 Mar 2024 21.22 🏧 GMT 63 min: Donnarumma claims he was fouled by Benzema,
who certainly knocked him off balance. The striker was entitled 🏧 to challenge for the
ball with a shoulder charge, though, and forced the mistake. Game on! The Bernabeu
explodes in 🏧 excitement!
Updated at 21.24 GMT
9 Mar 2024 21.21 GMT GOAL! Real Madrid 1-1
PSG (Benzema 61); agg 1-2 Donnarumma gifts Real 🏧 a goal, and the hosts are back in it!
The PSG keeper faffs around having received the ball at his 🏧 feet. Benzema presses hard.
Donnarumma panics and shanks a weird ball across the face of his own goal. Vinicius
retrieves 🏧 it at the far stick, and rolls it back for Benzema, who slams home from close
range. What a fiasco! 🏧 Karim Benzema of Real Madrid puts PSG keeper Gianluigi
Donnarumma. Photograph: Helios de la Rubia/Real Madrid/Getty Images Benzema slots the
🏧 ball past PSG’s Marquinhosn (left) and Donnarumma to get the hosts back into the tie.
Photograph: David Ramos/Getty Images Benzema 🏧 (centre) celebrates alongside Vinicius
Junior Photograph: Susana Vera/Reuters Real Madrid’s David Alaba celebrates with
Benzema (right). Photograph: Manu Fernández/AP
Updated at 🏧 00.01 GMT
9 Mar 2024 21.19
GMT 60 min: Mbappe backs himself in a footrace down the left with Carvajal. He 🏧 does
this because he’s so obviously going to win it. Carvajal has little option but to
cynically barge the troublesome 🏧 Mbappe off the field of play. Yellow card. Mbappe is
such a danger, Real will do well to end this 🏧 game with 11 men.
9 Mar 2024 21.17 GMT 58
min: Mbappe stays down, but happily there’s nothing seriously wrong with 🏧 him and he’s
back up soon enough. While he grabs a breather / gets the once-over from the physio,
Real 🏧 make a double change, replacing Kroos and Asensio with Rodrygo and Camavinga.
9
Mar 2024 21.16 GMT 56 min: Mbappe is 🏧 outrageous, like that’s telling you something you
don’t know. He nearly power-glides his way clear, chasing a ball he’s got 🏧 no right to
get, squeezing between Militao and Alaba and into the box. Just as Mbappe prepares to
pull the 🏧 trigger, Alaba sticks out a leg to block bravely ... and brilliantly. That was
the tie, right there. Kylian Mbappe 🏧 of PSG goes past David Alaba (left) and Eder
Gabriel Militao. Photograph: Pressinphoto/Shutterstock But Alaba gets back to thwart
Mbappe. 🏧 Photograph: Javier Soriano/AFP/Getty Images
Updated at 22.22 GMT
9 Mar 2024
21.14 GMT 55 min: Vinicuis tries to deliver a sucker punch 🏧 up the other end, but his
shot bobbles fairly harmlessly through to Donnarumma.
9 Mar 2024 21.14 GMT 54 min:
Mbappe 🏧 has the ball in the net for the third time this evening, but for the second time
it’s ruled out! 🏧 Neymar slips him free down the inside left. He enters the box, sells
the committed Courtois an outrageous dummy, and 🏧 having shuffled past the stricken
keeper to his left, whistles the ball into the unguarded net. What skill! Unfortunately
he 🏧 was a mile offside. That was one hell of a bodyswerve, though. PSG’s Kylian Mbappe
shimmies ... Photograph: Irina R 🏧 Hipolito/Shutterstock And shammies past Real Madrid’s
goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and sticks the ball in the net but he’s thwarted by 🏧 the
linesman’s flag. Photograph: Manu Fernández/AP
Updated at 23.51 GMT
9 Mar 2024 21.12
GMT 52 min: Modric strokes a cute pass 🏧 down the left channel for Asensio, who wins the
first corner of the second half. Kroos hits a long diagonal 🏧 towards Valverde, who
attempts to complete the Scholes-Beckham / De Bruyne-Mahrez routine from the best part
of 30 yards. He 🏧 catches his volley well, but he’s way too far out to make it count. PSG
block and clear.
9 Mar 2024 🏧 21.10 GMT 51 min: Neymar is bowled over by Militao, who
earns himself a talking-to from the referee.
9 Mar 2024 🏧 21.08 GMT 49 min: Vinicuis cuts
in from the left, a spurt of pace that catches PSG unaware. He slips 🏧 a quick pass down
the channel for Asensio, who looks to take a touch and shoot on the penalty spot, 🏧 but
Kimpembe was wise to the grift and toe-pokes away just in time. Decent move by Real,
nevertheless.
9 Mar 2024 🏧 21.06 GMT 47 min: A fair bit of PSG possession, and a lot of
Real chasing. A pattern could be 🏧 set early.
9 Mar 2024 21.03 GMT PSG get the second
half underway. No changes at the break. “One of the 🏧 many, many joys of watching Mbappé
when he’s on song, is how simple his play is,” begins Kári Tulinius. “It’s 🏧 not that
he’s not capable of doing the complex stuff, but he usually chooses the simplest way.
There was a 🏧 moment, before he scored his goal, when he slowed down for a split second,
as if thinking: ‘What to do 🏧 now? I think I’ll just thump it.’ And he thumped it.”
9 Mar
2024 20.50 GMT HALF TIME: Real Madrid 0-1 🏧 PSG (agg: 0-2) Some worrying head tennis from
a Real viewpoint, as it’s in their own box. Courtois eventually snaffles, 🏧 and the
whistle goes. Kylian Mbappé, hotly tipped to join Real in the summer, has pushed them
towards the Champions 🏧 League precipice. A reminder that away goals don’t carry an extra
tariff any more, so Real just need the two 🏧 to send this to extra time and possible
penalties. But the balance of play suggests PSG are more likely to 🏧 widen the gap and
finish the job. Big half-time team talk coming up for Carlo Ancelotti.
9 Mar 2024 20.46
GMT 🏧 45 min: Marquinhos creams a pass down the inside-left channel for Mbappe, who
flicks insouciantly inside for Messi. For a 🏧 second, it looks like Messi is preparing to
inflict more hurt on Real from the edge of the box, but 🏧 he can’t quite sort his feet
out. There are two more first-half minutes for Real to survive, at which point 🏧 they can
simmer down and regroup.
9 Mar 2024 20.45 GMT 44 min: Vinicius is booked for arguing
the toss. Madrid 🏧 could do with hearing the half-time whistle and clearing their
heads.
9 Mar 2024 20.44 GMT 43 min: Nacho is booked 🏧 for a cynical clip on Hakimi, who
was barrelling into space down the right.
9 Mar 2024 20.42 GMT 41 min: 🏧 Real try to
respond quickly, Asensio curling in low from the right to win a corner off Kimpembe.
Before the 🏧 set piece can be taken, there’s a petulant rumble in the box. Paredes, on a
yellow, foolishly decides to get 🏧 involved, and is hauled away from the melee by his
keeper Donnarumma. Everything calms down quickly enough.
