BARCELONA, Spain — Barcelona completed the biggest comeback in Champions League history by beating Paris Saint-Germain 6-1 to reach the quarterfinals on Wednesday, scoring the decisive goal of a 6-5 victory on aggregate in the fifth minute of stoppage time.
BARCELONA, Spain — Barcelona completed the biggest comeback in Champions League history by beating Paris Saint-Germain 6-1 to reach the quarterfinals on Wednesday, scoring the decisive goal of a 6-5 victory on aggregate in the fifth minute of stoppage time.
With Neymar on inspired form, Barcelona scored three times from the 88th minute. Sergi Roberto’s dramatic late goal set up by Neymar sent the Nou Camp fans wild and made their team the first to overturn a 4-0 first-leg defeat since the Champions League format started in the 1992-93 season.
PSG seemed certain to go through after Edinson Cavani scored a valuable away goal following Barcelona’s opening salvo of three goals, which included a Lionel Messi penalty.
Barcelona needed three more goals to advance, and the feat seemed impossible even after Neymar found the net with a free kick in the 88th minute.
But the Brazil striker converted a penalty in the 90th and then followed up with a chipped pass for substitute Roberto to steer the ball beyond goalkeeper Kevin Trapp in injury time.
“This is the best match of my career,” Neymar said. “It was difficult after the match in Paris. For the past week I have been crazy to play this match, and we have made history.
“I just told Sergi Roberto to get in the area, that he would score a goal.”
The winner sent Barcelona’s bench flooding onto the pitch as the stadium celebrated the club’s 10th consecutive appearance in the quarterfinals. Coach Luis Enrique, who announced he would leave the club this summer, embraced Neymar and any other player or staff member within reach.
“What defines this victory is faith, the faith of my players, the faith of our fans. No child or adult here at Camp Nou will forget this night,” Luis Enrique said. “I have never seen a better communion between team and supporters. We overran them, they didn’t cross midfield.”
Barcelona played with all the intensity that PSG was lacking for the entire match, and didn’t need its trademark passing attacks to get its first three goals.
PSG coach Unai Emery’s strategy of not pressuring Barcelona backfired, as his team sat back and passively let the hosts hem them into their box.
“We wasted a great chance and we know it,” Emery said. “The first half was more about our mistakes.”
The visitors’ entire backline was frozen when Rafinha’s routine cross came into the box in the third minute, and Luis Suarez was able to nod a bouncing ball over Trapp.
PSG was running scared from there on, lamely trying to hunker down in its area and wait for the clock to tick down.
Defender Layvin Kurzawa was at fault for Barcelona’s second goal in the 40th, when he turned Andres Iniesta’s back-heeled flick into his own net and ignited the 96,000-plus crowd.
Another PSG defender, right back Thomas Meunier, was behind Messi’s penalty in the 50th after he clumsily thrust his shoulder into Neymar’s legs while trying to recover his position in the box.
Emery finally ordered his players briefly forward.
That was when Cavani stepped in for French champions, rifling in Kurzawa’s headed pass in the 62nd moments after he had hit the post in the visitors’ only threats.
But Barcelona never stopped pressing, despite needing three goals.
And Neymar led the way, pulling off one of the most remarkable sequences seen at the ground of the five-time champions.
He struck first with a curling free kick from the left flank that slipped inside Trapp’s near post.
Next, he took responsibility for converting the spot kick after Suarez was shouldered down by Marquinhos in the box.
The best was saved for last, when his pass was lofted over the defense and fell for Roberto to stretch out far enough and turn the ball into the net.
“I just threw myself forward,” said Roberto, who went on in the 76th minute. “After the loss in Paris, we were all very down. But this team, if there is something it has proven, it’s that it is made for nights like this.”
Barcelona had set a precedent in the 2012-13 season’s Round of 16 when it became the first team to erase a 2-0 away leg loss by roaring back to beat AC Milan 4-0.
Nothing, however, compared to the challenge faced against PSG, a side that hadn’t lost in 16 matches overall and completely outplayed Barcelona during the first leg in Paris.
Barcelona midfielder Arda Turan tweeted after the match: “You call it “football team”, we call it “Barça”. You call it “miracle”, we call it “normal” #ForçaBarça.”
