Araujo and Cancelo deprive Barcelona of the semifinals

Barcelona defeated PSG 1:4 in the return leg. The biggest topic of the match was the red card for stopper Ronald Araujo. From then on, the game was clearly in the hands of the visitors. In addition, Joao Cancelo helped the visitors with an unnecessary penalty. After years of suffering in the group stage, the home team was left with nothing to cry about in the quarter-finals.

Opening of the match

The start of the match was marked by the visitors’ onslaught. Barcelona played in a deep block in their own half, but did not let the opponents do anything. From the start, it was clear that the visitors were better prepared. The stoppers gave Lewandowski no space and the Polish cannonballer was immediately played in.

The home side scored a goal from an isolated situation in their opponents’ half. Lamil Yamal rounded Nuno Mendes on the right wing and his centre was cleared into the net by Raphinha. It was the 3rd goal for the Brazilians in the entire double header.

Araujo ended the match

In the 29th minute came the key moment. Araujo made an illegal stop on Bradley Barcola, who raced in alone on ter Stegen. He was rightly shown a red card. In the post-match press conference, Xavi was still incredulous that the tackle was not a red card and that the referee had damaged Barcelona.

Almost all the footage clearly confirms a clear foul by Araujo. First came the unintentional punch to the face, then the tackle on the shoulder, and to top it all off, the foot contact between the two players. Cubarsí was far away from Araujo at that moment so the Uruguayan was the last defending player.

Araujo, however, fouled unnecessarily. It was only 30 minutes into the game, Barcelona were 2 goals down. Even if Barcola had converted, Paris would still have had to score at least 1 goal. Moreover, the French player’s chance came after losing the ball in midfield and a quick break, but it was the first of the match. Araujo sent his team unnecessarily shorthanded.

Cancel’s penalty foul from the realm of the unnecessary

In the 61st minute, Kylian Mbappé converted a penalty to increase the score to 1: 3, a relegation result. The penalty foul was committed by Joao Cancelo. The Portuguese fouled Ousmane Démbélé.

Dembélé was facing the touchline at the time of the foul, and was almost in the corner of the penalty area, not threatening the home goal at all. However, the Portuguese decided to tackle the situation with a slip and caused the penalty. If the term unnecessary is debatable with Araujo’s foul, here it is quite clear.

PSG were 1:2 up at the time of the foul and would have gone into extra time in this situation. Anything could have happened in extra time, maybe it would have gone to penalties. But Cancelo completely ended any hopes of Barcelona advancing in the 60th minute. PSG dominated from the 1:3 goal onwards and another Mbappé goal came late on.

Source: Champions League