irishexaminer.com

PSG dash Arsenal's Champions League dreams in Paris to set up Inter showdown

PSG players celebrate after the Champions League semi-final. Pic: AP Photo/Thibault Camus

Champions League semi-final second-leg: PSG 2-1 Arsenal (PSG win 3-1 on aggregate)

THE SIGHTS and sounds of the Parc des Princes celebrations will haunt Mikel Arteta and his players for the rest of their lives, whatever they go on to achieve together in the future.

Their season ended not in shame or dishonour but in an all too familiar story of missed opportunity.

Would a €100 striker have made any difference? We will never know, but Gianluigi Donnarumma is a hard man to beat for any forward and the occasion can get to the best of players.

Arteta came here to make history and his team created the chances to do just that in their quest to become the first Arsenal team to win the Champions League.

Now his fellow Spaniard Luis Enrique will get a chance to achieve that feat for the perennial nearly men Paris Saint-Germain, and deservedly so.

Arsenal came here to overturn a first leg deficit against a Paris side regarded the best in Europe this season, certainly now favourites to beat Inter Milan in the Munich final at the end of the month.

This was their fourth semi-final in six seasons. They last reached the final in 2020 when Bayern Munich triumphed.

Misfiring Arsenal were their fourth Premier League scalp of their European journey having taken care of Manchester City, Liverpool and Aston Villa earlier in the competition. They have the bite and fight to beat all comers now.

Arsenal, it was often said, had to be perfect.

They started well enough, but were far from perfect nearly scoring three in the first 15 minutes.

PSG, who also missed a penalty, weathered the storm to lead through Fabian Ruiz at half-time and doubled their lead midway through the second half through Achraf Hakimi. Bukayo Saka scored one afterwards for the Londoners, who should have scored more.

Declan Rice was first to miss with a header from a Jurrien Timber cross.

PSG players celebrate. Pic: AP Photo/Thibault Camus

Seconds later and a long Thomas Partey throw-in caused havoc in the PSG box as Gabriel Martinelli stole in to weakly connect with a volley and force a decent save on the line from Donnarumma on the goal line save. The Italian made an even better stop from a much better shot when Martin Odegaard let fly from the edge of the area with a stinging drive.

Arsenal were all over their French hosts, who struggled to get out of their own half and work out how to defend against Arteta’s new secret weapon – Partey’s long throw-in, which was launched into the area repeatedly form either side of the pitch.

They conceded one to Bournemouth that way at the weekend and the Spanish coach was not too proud to pinch the idea in the biggest match of his managerial career.

It turned out PSG were not too bothered about not having too much of the ball after all. They bided their time and picked Arsenal off in the knowledge that their pace in the break is lethal.

And there was one such sudden shift in momentum when Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, the man they call Kvaradona over here, hit the woodwork from an angle with his side’s first attack of the match.

That could have killed the tie in a flash.

The Georgian was involved on another break when he drew a 26th-minute foul from Rice to earn a free-kick that ultimately led to PSG scoring.

Partey headed clear only to the edge of his own area to be able to watch experienced Spain international Ruiz chest the ball down on the edge of the area, create space to shoot on his favoured wing in one smart movement and then unleashed an unstoppable left-foot volley.

In fairness to the flying Raya, it was also helped in by a deflection off William Saliba. Now Arsenal would need to score three to win and two to take the match to extra-time.

Had they not been playing so well and Inter Milan and Barcelona not played out such a roller coaster goal fest the night before then the ref might as well have stopped the fight there and then.

The PSG fans still had not caught their breath since way before kick off but now the noise was off the scale. How the Arsenal player heard Arteta’s heated instructions from the touchline is a mystery. Maybe they couldn’t.

Either way, they went straight back on to the attack, only to be caught on the counter by Kvaratskhelia, who played in Bradley Barcola top force a decent save from David Raya. That would have been lights out.

Only two teams have reached the Champions League final having lost the first leg of their semi-final at home, with Ajax overcoming Panathinaikos in 1995-96, and Tottenham doing the same against Ajax in 2018-19.

Arsenal had won their past four away games in the competition, however, they have never won five in a row on the road in Europe before.

So they stuck at it after the break but apart from a Saka shot, which Donnarumma tipped around a post at full stretch, only really looked dangerous at set pieces. Where have we heard that before?

Raya made a 67th-minute save from a bizarre penalty award by controversial German referee Felix Zwayer, who adjudged Myles Lewis-Skelly had committed a handball offence with his back to the ball.

Only in Europe and only with VAR. Thankfully, for football, Raya saved Vitinha’s unconvincing kick and Arsenal lived to fight again.

At least for five minutes, as that’s how long it took for Hakimi to kill off any faint comeback hopes with a crunching second goal from just inside the penalty area.

Saka struck a deserved Arsenal goal back four minutes later to set up an unlikely finish. Had he not missed a really good chance with 11 minutes to go, we would have had a really dramatic ending.

PSG: Donnarumma 9, Hakimi 6, Marquinhos 6, Pacho 6, Nuno Mendes 6, Joao Neves, Vitinha, Fabian Ruiz, Barcola 6 (Dembele 70), Doue 6 (Hernandez 74), Kvaratskhelia 7.

Arsenal: Raya 6, Timber 7 (White 83), Saliba 6, Kiwior 6, Lewis-Skelly 6 (Calafiori 67), Partey 6, Rice 6, Odegaard 6, Martinelli 6 (Trossard 67), Merino, Saka.

Referee: Felix Zwayer 6