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1 week ago
16 BORUSSIA DORTMUND pulled off a superb Champions League upset to reach the final for the first time in 11 years.
They will be back at Wembley on Saturday 1 June, where they lost to Bayern Munich in 2013, after downing Paris Saint-Germain and ruining Kylian Mbappe’s farewell in France as Jadon Sancho outshone the French superstar again.
GettyKylian Mbappe and PSG have suffered Champions League heartbreak[/caption]
AFPThe German side defeated the French giants 2-0 aggregrate[/caption]
Manchester United fans watching on will have felt further humiliation after Monday’s mauling at Crystal Palace watching Sancho cruise into a Champions League final.
Mats Hummels headed home the only goal as Edin Terzic’s side built on the hard-fought first leg win to dump PSG out and extend their long wait for European success by at least another year.
PSG boss Luis Enrique had revved up the home support while the French press assumed a comeback would be straightforward.
Their ultras in the Virage Auteuil unveiled an elaborate banner ahead of kick off, depicting a team bus smashing through Dortmund’s Yellow Wall above the message: “We are the army of PSG and nothing can stop us.”
It turns out the fifth-best team in the Bundesliga is all it takes.
The end-to-end theme from the first leg was picked up here, with Mbappe, Karim Adeyemi and then Goncalo Ramos having had their own half-chances before Julian Ryerson found the side-netting.
Neither PSG or Dortmund could quite get a grasp on the action, Ousmane Dembele – who missed a sitter six days earlier – blasted high and wide from close range before Adeyemi drew a fine stop from Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Aside from his volley and a couple of moments of flash footwork, Mbappe had been on the fringes, isolated on the left.
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Having been upstaged by Sancho a week ago, many expected the Real Madrid-bound sensation to set the record straight in his home city – but the Englishman was more eye-catching once again.
This was Mbappe’s most important game in seven years at Parc des Princes, a final chance to get a shot at cementing his legacy with a Champions League title before the expected move to LaLiga this summer and it fell flat.
There is still a French Cup final against Lyon to be won, but this was the big one.
After a flat first half PSG had looked to be getting things going in the right direction. Achraf Hakimi quickly won a corner from which wonderkid Warren Zaire-Emery somehow hit the post with the goal at his mercy from five yards.
Any hope from that quick restart was sucked out of this corner of Paris on 50 minutes.
Marquinhos played an unfortunate back-pass out for a corner and the visitors struck, Hummels – the only survivor in last night’s starting XI from the 2013 final – was left completely unmarked to meet Julian Brandt’s corner at the far post and head in under Donnarumma.
Terzic quickly sent on veteran Marco Reus, who also played at Wembley 11 years ago, to help see them through before Sule later replaced Sancho.
Just as in the first leg, PSG started to pile up the chances but could not take them. Ramos twice fired over the bar either side of Mendes striking the post from range.
Nothing was going their way. Referee Daniele Orsato pointed at the spot when Dembele hit the deck but immediately changed his mind and gave a free-kick right on the edge of the area.
The Parisians continued to push for a way back in, Mbappe hitting side-netting, but Dortmund battled, blocked and used every trick in the book. The shot at history is theirs.
