Spanish champs Barcelona pulled off a Patriots-like comeback Wednesday night to defeat French champs Paris Saint-Germain in the UEFA Champions League round of 16.
Three weeks ago, PSG destroyed Barcelona 4-0 in Paris in the first leg of their knockout round matchup. Thus, Barca went into Wednesday’s final leg in Barcelona with a huge goal differential to overcome. While Barcelona has top class talent and has defied large odds before, nobody really gave them a shot.
Now before we give anyone else grief, we have to fall on our own sword here…
This is why you can never trust studies (H/T @phillipbupp) https://t.co/umvStFhfui pic.twitter.com/dvKMcswhgD
— Freezing Cold Takes (@OldTakesExposed) February 15, 2017
https://twitter.com/AbdallaTaryam/status/839596498568495104
As you can see, we didn’t think Barcelona could pull off a comeback. Thankfully we weren’t alone…
https://twitter.com/Brad_Pinard/status/831614791634534401
On Valentine's Day, Champions League broke up his affair with Barcelona.
Savage— Tancredi Palmeri (@tancredipalmeri) February 14, 2017
How to fix Barcelona
– Hire Ronald Koeman
– Sign Gareth Barry
– Loan Ross Barkleybosh
— James Tyler (still) (@JamesTylerESPN) February 14, 2017
Barcelona KNOCKED OUT.
— Mugambi M'Mutegi (@PeterMutegi) February 14, 2017
Apaga y vámonos…
El Barcelona dice adiós a la Champions…— David Faitelson (@DavidFaitelson_) February 14, 2017
https://twitter.com/Gonth93/status/831612636416602112
Barca will probably win second leg but they are out of UCL!
— Spencer (@SpencerOwen) February 14, 2017
Roses are red, Barca are poo. Messi's struggling, PSG are through.
— Sam Homewood (@SamHomewood) February 14, 2017
Barcelona have no midfield and, right now, no chance of going through. 4-0 is a completely fair scoreline too. PSG have been superb.
— Andrew Gaffney (@GaffneyVLC) February 14, 2017
Everyone was completely stunned as PSG all but knocked Barcelona out of the Champions Leag… https://t.co/lvwOH5brXf pic.twitter.com/nPCpFMpsSE
— breakingnews.ie (@breakingnewsie) February 14, 2017
Barcelona giving Arsenal competition in the 'knocked out at round of 16" category..
— daYvo (@iamDAYVO) February 14, 2017
https://twitter.com/FutbolIntellect/status/831614172165124097
Even Barcelona star Neymar wasn’t very confident…
#Neymar thinks Barcelona has pretty much no chance of coming back against PSGhttps://t.co/cpCTDUG76I pic.twitter.com/r4jo5EGZJN
— CBS Sports Soccer (@CBSSportsSoccer) February 16, 2017
But, despite the lack of confidence, Barca pulled off a miracle of all miracles on Wednesday.
After scoring three early goals, Barcelona cut its aggregate deficit to 4-3, and had PSG on the ropes. But minutes into the second half, Edison Cavani put PSG on the board with a goal to give PSG a 5-3 aggregate lead, and the coveted away goal tiebreaker. Thus, Barcelona would now need to score three goals to move on to the next round.
At this point it was surely over right? Twitter thought so…
https://twitter.com/Sporf/status/839584372252618753
Barca need 3 goals now. No chance
— bateson87 (@bateson87) March 8, 2017
https://twitter.com/LazyWrita/status/839584194946822149
RIP BARCELONA!
— Humor Esportivo (@humoresportivo) March 8, 2017
https://twitter.com/5nBOI/status/839585071900282880
GOAL PSG!! CAVANI!! A HUGE away goal that likely ends Barcelona’s comeback effort #UCL
— SI Soccer (@si_soccer) March 8, 2017
Here’s PSG player Angel Di Maria blowing kisses to the Barcelona fans after Cavani’s goal…
https://twitter.com/FP__Media/status/839587713468751872
The timeline of Barcelona legend and current BBC pundit Gary Lineker is possibly the most entertaining of them all. As Barca scored their third goal of the match, he began to start getting excited…
Barca 3-0. We could be about to see the greatest comeback in @ChampionsLeague history. @btsport 2 now.
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) March 8, 2017
However, Cavani’s goal brought him back to reality…
Cavani strikes to surely put it beyond Barça's reach. Extraordinary game.
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) March 8, 2017
At this point, Gary was becoming sour and started to lament about UEFA’s away goal tiebreaker rule…
Always hated the away goals rule. Kills so many games. @UEFA time for change?
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) March 8, 2017
No goal should have a greater value than another goal. It's just not how the game works. Nonsensical, unfair and spoils many a contest imho.
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) March 8, 2017
By the 88th minute it seemed all but over, but an extraordinary Neymar free kick goal pulled one back for Barca to make the aggregate score 5-4 PSG. Lineker wasn’t thrilled though as he thought it was too little too late. He went on again about the tiebreaker rule…
What a last few minutes we'd have had now but for the crappy away goals rule.
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) March 8, 2017
He wasn’t the only one with doubts of course…
GOAL Barcelona! It’s not going to be enough, but Neymar makes it 5-4 PSG on aggregate with a gorgeous free kick. Barça needs 2 in 3 minutes
— SI Soccer (@si_soccer) March 8, 2017
Two minutes later, however, Neymar scored on a penalty kick to make it 5-5 on aggregate…
Good heavens! Surely not.
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) March 8, 2017
PSG still owned the tiebreaker though and stoppage time approached. Barcelona needed one more goal in short order. That’s when this happened…
Gary, your thoughts?
Unbe-fucking-lievable! Greatest game ever.
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) March 8, 2017
