Can PSG finally win the Champions League?

Between sips of water and looking like he wished he was elsewhere, Pep Guardiola said: “It is so, so hard. Maybe one day we will improve.” This was after Manchester City’s Champions League quarter-final exit last year, their third at that stage in as many seasons and fourth before the semi-final since Guardiola joined in 2016. “I am not able to do it with these incredible guys,” he said after last August’s 1-3 loss to Lyon. . “Hopefully one day we will bridge the gap.”

It is in the context of these statements that Paris St Germain’s (PSG) progress to the semi-finals should be viewed. At the Parc des Princes, theirs on a 30-year lease since 2013, on Tuesday PSG lost 0-1 through former player Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting’s 40th minute strike but advanced on away goals after two thrilling, frenzied games against defending champions Bayern Munich ended 3-3.

Alex Ferguson said in 2010 that the European Champions League is the world’s best football competition. Since 1999-2000, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Liverpool and Barcelona have won it 14 times, showing that money matters as much as experience to better the best.

To be in the penultimate round of the Champions League one season after playing the final makes it seem like the massive fund inflow since the 2011 takeover by Qatar Sports Investments -- including but not restricted to $250 million on Neymar in 2017 and a training centre in Poissy, 20 minutes from Paris -- is finally yielding results. It’s taken some time coming though.

PSG lost to Chelsea on away goals in the 2014 quarter-final. In 2016-17 when they beat Barcelona 4-0 in the first leg, it seemed the Paris club would finally break the Champions League hoodoo. But in a crazy final seven minutes, PSG leaked three goals and, incredibly, Barcelona won the round-of-16 tie 6-5 on aggregate.

Four years later, and with another away goals loss to Manchester United in the round of 16 in between, Neymar again had a good night but this time he was in the deep blue of the Parisians. The Brazilian combined superbly with Kylian Mbappe and Angel di Maria, hit the post and the bar and was twice denied by Bayern goalie Manuel Neuer.

Both sides could have won both legs but PSG doing that to the six-time European champions who beat Barcelona 8-2 last term and have lost once in 20 Champions League games showed that they have earned the right to be at European football’s high table. Be it scoring twice in 28 minutes in the first leg or Neymar and di Maria’s trickery in the 64th minute on Tuesday, PSG, who beat Barcelona in the last round, showed they were overawed no more. No wonder that now, even Neymar said he feels at “home” at PSG.

Yes, Bayern missed Robert Lewandowski, Serge Gnabry and Leon Goretzka but PSG too were without Mauro Icardi and Marquinhos and having just recovered from Covid-19, Marco Verratti was on the bench. It meant Danilo Pereira had to drop into defence to partner Presnel Kimpembe and keep the marauding Bavarians at bay. Having influenced the first leg with his brace, Mbappe’s tracking back furiously and sliding to prevent a Bayern corner-kick in the 68th minute was proof of how much PSG wanted this.

“PSG has grown. The club keeps growing day by day, year by year," said Kimpembe. “We bounced back (from previous failures). Tonight (Tuesday) was war, and we won that war.”

At home, PSG trail Lille by three points this term but have been dominant in France, winning seven Ligue 1 titles since 2011 and the domestic quadruple in 2015-16, 2017-18 and 2019-20. So, Europe’s the real deal for them. “We have what it takes to win the Champions League,” said PSG president Nasser al-Khelaifi.

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