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Atalanta dealt cruelest of exits by PSG late show

Atalanta dealt cruelest of exits by PSG late show

Atalanta vs PSG Champions League quarter-final live

RB Leipzig vs Atlético Madrid live: Champions League 2019/20

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

RB Leipzig vs Atlético Madrid live: Champions League 2019/20

RB Leipzig vs Atlético Madrid live

Follow all the action from tonight's game with Johnny. 

Here's Simon Evans' on the whistle match report: 

Paris St Germain staged a superb comeback by scoring two late goals to beat Atalanta 2-1 and book a spot in the Champions League semi-finals after a thrilling finish on Wednesday.

Atalanta's superb display looked like dumping PSG out of the competition but Marquinhos levelled from close range in the final minute before Frenchman Kylian Mbappé set up fellow substitute Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting for a stoppage-time winner.

With Mbappé starting on the bench after an ankle injury, the creative burden fell on Brazilian forward Neymar, and he blasted an early effort over with the goal at his mercy.

Despite the gulf in finances between the clubs -- PSG spent more on Neymar and Mbappe than Atalanta had paid for players in total since 2001-02 -- the Italians led through Mario Pasalic who curled the ball home superbly in the 27th minute.

But PSG's late show took Thomas Tuchel's side through to the last four as the weary Atalanta players slumped to the turf.

Neymar: "I never thought about elimination. Nothing is going to stop me from thinking we are going to the final. It was very difficult. We are experiencing good things, we have a great squad, we are a family. It was impossible to think we'd be eliminated."

Ander Herrera: "Everyone is ready to help each other. We've won 4 titles. Only a team can do that. We did what we needed to do against a very good team."

Neymar

But was Neymar really bothered by turning that match around?

Unbelievable indeed. 

Full time score 

Atalanta opened the scoring through Pasalic after 27 minutes and they nearly held on to go through but a Marquinhos goal in the 90th and a Choupo-Moting tap in three minutes later means PSG are into the semi-finals. 

Full time! PSG looked like they were out, but two goals in a couple of minutes right at the death turned things around and Tuchel's side are into the semi-finals. 

90+6

Muriel through! But his first touch is poor and the chance to level it goes a-begging. 

Mbappé gets the assist there and he has been different class since he came on after an hour. He has three extra gears to most players. 

90+3

PSG! And that's the comeback! Choupo-Moting onto the end of a cross from Mbappé and Atalanta have come undone at the death. 

90

Five minutes of time added on. 

90

There is a goal check but it changes nothing. 1-1 it is. 

89

PSG! Marquinhos! Pass from Neymar and Atalanta are stunned. 

89

Mbappé into the box but his control lets him down under the attention of two defenders. 

88

Freuler needs some medical attention. He's got some cramp it looks like. The ref makes a big show of stopping his fancy smart watch. 

87

Draxler decides he knows how to get an equaliser. A massive blast from distance. Unfortunately his plans come undone when he gets his foot right under it and it flies about 50 feet over. 

86

Choupo-Moting! Meets a corner well but he can't keep it down. PSG have to regroup to go for the equaliser again. 

85

Palomino booked, another heavy foul. Atalanta are running a risk of losing a man as they tire into the final stages of this. 

And just over five minutes to play. 

82

Double substitution this time for Atalanta. Robin Gosens off for Timothy Castagne and Jacopo Da Riva comes on for Duvan Zapata who is utterly cream-crackered after putting in a huge shift, running all over holding the ball up for his team. 

80

The Mbappé show! A shot from the top of the box forces a fine save from Sportiello and then the Frenchman bounds away again at more of an angle from the left and keeper and a defender just manage to block it. Mbappé at pace is terrifying. 

80

Another change for PSG. Maxim Choupo-Moting for Mauro Icardi, who did very little. 

79

Navas can't go on. Sergio Rico #yourtimehascome

78

Navas doesn't look very happy. He's still struggling from that knock earlier on

77

Neymar trundles onto a decent ball and gets his shot off, but he only really half hits it and keeper Sportiello saves on the deck. 

76

Paredes has been booked, but I haven't worked out why yet. Sorry.

"A tough tackle" is what I'm seeing. Don't know who it was on yet.

74

Mbappé through and his shot is well saved by Sportiello! He's lightning quick is Mbappé, even with the ankle knock he's recovering from. 

73

Navas will carry on after that knock and some magic sponge. #Asyouwere Sergio Rico.

71

Double sub from Tuchel to shake things up a bit. Paredes on for Gueye, and Draxler on for Herrera. 

71

Sub keeper Rico warming up for PSG...

70

Goal scorer Pasalic off for Muriel for Atalanta.

70

Navas has taken a knock and will need attention.

Navas

No, there's nothing wrong with your telly, Navas really does have an odd dyed patch on the top of his head.

67

Toloi into the book for Atalanta for pulling Mbappé back as he went off on a run down the left wing waiting for the pass. Atalanta understandably nervous of his pace. That means Atalanta once again have four on a yellow card out there, after Djimsiti, who was booked went off. 

65

Lovely skill from Mbappé out on the left to get it to Neymar. That's what Tuchel was wanting. 

63

Atalanta beginning to struggle physically out there, dropping further back and asking more of their front men to hold the ball up. That's a worrying sign for them. 

61

Neymar trying to dribble round his man who wins it cleanly, which leads to a fair amount of ranting from the frustrated Brazilian. PSG won't want him to lose his rag now. 

It is a fine question.

60

Double substitution for Atalanta. Djimsiti off for Jose Palomino and Gómez off for Ruslan Malinovsky. 

60

Mbappé on for Sarabia!

59

Pretty open first 15 minutes of the second half, with half-chances for both sides, but nothing clear cut. All a bit niggly too, as both teams look to stamp their domination on the midfield. 

58

Djimsiti at the back post with a great chance, but he goes for more power than he needed and ends up blasting wide. 

57

Herrera into the book for a thudding one into the back of Gómez, who goes flying. Two yellows for PSG now. 

56

Mbappé is warming up...

54

De Roon blasts one from distance. Navas watches it fly well wide.

54

Bernat booked. The Atalanta bench were screaming for that after a foul on goal scorer Pasalic. 

53

Zapata into the book for a shove. That's four yellows now for Atalanta, which with nearly 40 minutes to go is worrying for them.

52

PSG piling on a bit of pressure here. 

51

Neymar blasts it straight at the wall and wins a corner, which Sarabia takes but is easily cleared. 

50

De Roon picks up a yellow for pulling Neymar back. Ref Taylor played advantage there, but he pulled it back for the booking. He's clearly not happy at Atalanta's more cynical side. 

48

Another corner for Atalanta, but Djimsti fouls and PSG can build.

47

Neat stuff from De Roon to beat his man, stride forward and whack one. Deflected out for a corner. 

46

PSG straight on the attack looking for the leveller but Gueye can't get his cross through cleanly and Sportiello gathers it.

Second half underway!

Teams coming back out... PSG look very serious. Neymar is strapping his right wrist, with chat from the physios. Maybe injured banging the turf after that second miss. 

Aaron90266626, likely not his real name, points out in the thread that PSG have only played two competitive games in five months, which is fair enough, but I think the Bonetti is far more making the point that Atalanta have had a fine, fine season, and that's what people are surprised by. Even if PSG had been well-oiled Atalanta would have caused them problems.

Will we see Mbappé in the second half? Pretty likely I suspect, but maybe not from the start. 

Can't really argue with that analysis. The second miss was a wonder for the ages.

Just glancing down our Twitter timeline about 84.2% of the tweets feature Neymar in some form or another. 

Half-time! Atalanta 1-0 PSG. Tuchel fairly goes sprinting away on his crutches. He knows he's got a massive half-time chat to give. Atalanta have been worth their lead, even if they faded a bit in the last 10 minutes of that, and had to thank their lucky stars Neymar forgot to put on his shooting boots. Will he change his footwear at half-time?

45+1

Freuler booked for a cynical pull back to break up an attack. Atalanta are tired after the shift they've put in this half. 

45

Neymar swings another free-kick and Marquinhos is waiting to nod home when an Atalanta head appears to save the day. PSG have had their chances...

42

My. word. That's some miss from Neymar. He's gets into the box on the left with just has the keeper to beat and goes for a big blast which he slices woefully high and well wide. He lies on the ground wishing it would swallow him up.

Hateboar gave the ball away to set up the chance. Absolute let off for him. 

42

Sarabia away down the left after Toloi completely misread the situation he cross to Icardi sprinting into the box but the coverage is good and Icardi can't get his foot on it. 

39

Kimpembe decides to take a risk playing it out and very nearly gifts Atalanta the ball. Bernat just gets there to save his bacon.

38

Neymar floats the free-kick in, it falls to Sarabia at the back post, he chips it back into the danger zone but Sportiello jumps and clutches. 

37

Djimsiti into the book for a pretty painful one on Icardi. 

35

Neymar does indeed go for the free-kick, but it was indeed a tad too far out and keeper Sportiello watches it safely into his gloves. 

Nice shape on the hit, but you'd need far more swerve and power from there to beat the keeper.

34

Neymar and Sarabia link up well but the final ball is loose. Somehow Atalanta make a mess of bringing it out and PSG have a dangerous free-kick. Maybe just too far out for Neymar...

Atalanta have been lit so far. 

31

Neymar is fouled by de Roon and in his frustration he very nearly lashes out with the elbow at another Atalanta player. Just controls himself in time. 

30

Atalanta are doing great work here cutting out PSG's supply lines. Marquinhos and Herrera have been mostly MIA so far. 

28

Neymar! Cuts across the top of the box and leathers one that looks like it's going just inside the post, but in fact slams the hoardings. More head in hands time for the PSG bench. 

Tasty strike!

27

That is some strike! Ball breaks to Pasalic out on the right of the PSG box and he curls an absolute hum-dinger into the top corner, leaving Navas clutching air. 

23

Marquinhos in a bold run down the right, swings it in, but Atalanta clear. PSG on the offensive now. Oh! That's a tasty little trick by Neymar to go round two and into the box. He crossed on the deck but there's a veritable forest of Atalanta legs to get through and it hits one of them and trundles to relative safety. 

20

Swung in after a pointless move-and-stop of the ball about 3 centimetres from where the free-kick was taken and it's onto Pasalic's head - he flicks it goalwards, but Navas has it all the way. 

20

Another dangerous free-kick to Atalanta...

19

Neymar hares away down the left after a neat one-two and plays a ball down the corridor of uncertainty between keeper and defenders thinking someone has to be running into that space. Nobody was running into that space. 

17

Atalanta stroking it around nicely. They are good on the ball.

Neymar's miss earlier. It was spin-away-and-hold-your-head bad.

15

PSG break and Icardi forces a throw-in out on the right after his cross is blocked. PSG had been struggling for a couple of minutes there, but as soon as they get the chance they are so quick coming forward. 

15

Kehrer obstructs his man and Atalanta have a tasty free-kick out on the left at the corner of the box which they swing in and Djimsiti gets onto well, but his solid header is misdirected. 

12

Caldara is offside as he nods the ball towards the corner. Navas still made another superb save. The big Costa Rican is on form tonight. 

11

Navas! Hateboar header at the back post which is deflected down and back up going into the top corner and Navas (whose haircut we'll try and avoid mentioning) makes a fine finger tip save!

10

Freuler goes through Herrera who gets up limping and grimacing. Atalanta haven't been overly physical but are clearly not going to take any prisoners if there's a risk. 

8

Hateboar has a niggle at Bernat who goes down, and is extremely unhappy. Nothing comes of it, except some exuberant gesticulating and a some shouting drifting away into the evening air. Peace is soon restored.

6

Atalanta mostly on the front foot here. Not for nothing did they score a remarkable 98 goals in Serie A this season. That's the most by any top-flight Italian side since 1951-52.

They're none too shabby in the Champions League where they've notched a total of 16, putting them in fifth place on the scoring charts.

3

PSG go straight up the other end after robbing the ball in the centre circle... Neymar is through one-on-one with the keeper and bizarrely, with the scoreboard operator already pressing the big '1' button for the away side, he stroked it well wide of the right-hand upright. What a let off for Atalanta!

2

Navas! Saves well on the deck after Atalanta unlocked things down the left. Alejandro Gómez will be a bit annoyed he didn't get more on that. Tasty chance.

2

Neymar backheel! That would have got the fans off their seats. It was very neat, although it didn't quite find the man. Also good to see Neymar up for it from the off. 

1

And Atalanta straight on the offensive up the right. It comes to nothing but it's always good to see a team going for it from the off. 

1

Atalanta get us underway!

Minute's silence for the victims of Covid-19

 

Match referee

Anthony Taylor from England is your referee tonight. He hails from Wythenshawe, Manchester and is 41 years of age. 

Teams coming out at the Estadio da Luz

PSG in a white track-suit, Atalanta already in their blue and black kit. The match officials are in a fine pink get up. 

And the Champions League anthem! 

Atalanta starting XI

In case you missed it before, here's the Atalanta starting side. With big grins. 

Neymar

Neymar is ready for a big game says Tuchel

Tuchel was talking up Neymar before the game. 

Neymar and Icardi

But of course it's only in the French league, which PSG dominate, some will say.

Name two players...

UEFA with the teaser. For Atalanta, imagine if stand-in keeper Sportiello either saves a penalty in regulation time, or produces a blinder in a penalty shoot out to win it. First choice stopper Pierluigi Gollini has a knee ligament tear. 

For PSG, of course many eyes are focused on Neymar, who is expected to do great things, but I can see Herrera producing some magic. Maybe a raking ball onto the feet of Icardi...
 

mbappé

Mbappé might come on

Kylian Mbappé is suffering from an ankle knock he picked up the French Cup Final against Saint-Etienne, but he might come on as a sub if need be. Coach Tuchel has said Neymar would love to have him alongside at some point in the match. To be honest, I think most players would like to have Mbappé alongside them at some point. I'd certainly take him as a striker partner for Thursday night football, so long as he wasn't too greedy. 
 

PSG

PSG's route to the quarters

PSG came through the group stage easily, thumping Real Madrid at home in the opening match (3-0) and drawing against their main group rivals 2-2 in the Bernabéu. That draw was the only point they dropped as they beat Galatasaray and Brugge home and away too. 

They then had their last-16 match against Borussia Dortmund done and dusted before Covid-19 suspended proceedings, losing away 2-1 in the first leg, but recording a 2-0 home win to book their ticket to Lisbon, as it ended up being. 

Atalanta: debutants

Atalanta are the first debutants to reach the quarter-finals of the competition since Leicester City in 2016-17 and the first Italian side to do so since Lazio in the 1999-00 campaign.

Atalanta vs PSG: how and where to watch - times, TV...

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Atalanta vs PSG: how and where to watch - times, TV...

How to watch Atalanta vs PSG

If you want to add to the experience of following our minute-by-minute coverage with actual pictures of what's going on, I can recommend Andy's guide, including a preview!

Atalanta dressing room

Looking very smart all round.

Atalanta are without key forward Josip Ilcic tonight, who is out for personal  reasons. That leaves goal scoring duties to Duvan Zapata and Luis Muriel. 

Even with the absence of Ilcic, Atalanta would hope to be a threat up front. They've been a goal scoring machine this year, knocking in a remarkable 98 goals in Serie A this season. That's the most by any top-flight Italian side since 1951-52. They're also none too shabby in the Champions League where they've notched a total of 16, putting them in fifth place. 

First time Atalanta play PSG

This is the first time Atalanta have played PSG in a competitive match (as far as I can see it's actually the first time they've ever met, but maybe they did organise a summer friendly once that's not in my dusty old book of football records.)

Atalanta of course are one of this season's surprise packages, having gone further in this competition as debutants than most expected and having finished the Serie A season in third place.  

PSG meanwhile were awarded the title in France when Ligue 1 finished early due to the coronavirus. And you couldn't really argue with the decision, they were 12 points clear with a game in hand. 

The season ending early in France does mean PSG have had a long old layoff, but they won both domestic cups to show the gears are still somewhat oiled, although they weren't entirely convincing in either match. 
 

da luz

Estadio da Luz

Looking pretty as a picture is the Estadio da Luz as it awaits Atalanta and PSG. 

PSG starting XI

Atalanta vs PSG live!

Hello and welcome to our coverage of the Champions League quarter-final between Atalanta and PSG from Lisbon.

Despite being a Champions League quarter-final it is a one-match tie, thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, with the standard season having been shutdown back in the spring, and with doubts over whether we'd even have an end to the 2019/20 edition of Europe's premier club competition.

But UEFA have re-jigged things and organised a mini-tournament in the Portuguese capital, meaning that both sides are just three games away from lifting Old Big Ears. It also means extra-time and penalties tonight if neither team can do enough to clinch it in regulation time.