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#3 Manchester United vs. Paris Saint-Germain – Round of 16
Despite an excellent win over Juventus at Old Trafford, Manchester United had largely stumbled through the Champions League group stages and had fired boss Jose Mourinho just days after their dismal loss to Valencia in the final game.
Caretaker boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had overseen some encouraging results since, but United still went into their Round of 16 clash with PSG as underdogs, largely thanks to the French side’s goalscoring abilities; they’d plundered 17 in the group stage, more than any other side.
United didn’t perform too badly in the first leg at Old Trafford, but PSG appeared to be operating on another level entirely, and despite missing Neymar and Edinson Cavani, had 5 shots on target compared to United’s 1 and ended up winning 0-2 with goals from Presnel Kimpembe and Kylian Mbappe. To compound matters for United, star midfielder Paul Pogba was sent off for two bookings, and both Jesse Lingard and Anthony Martial picked up injuries.
It left United with a mountain to climb in the second leg at the Parc des Princes, but Solskjaer – who had famously scored the winner for United in one of the Champions League’s all-time great comebacks in the 1998/99 final – refused to believe his side were beaten. And sure enough, just 2 minutes into the game, Romelu Lukaku pounced on a loose back-pass from Thilo Kehrer to give United hope.
That hope appeared to be dashed when some sloppy defending allowed Juan Bernat to score for PSG, leaving United needing at least another 2 goals to qualify. Incredibly though, Lukaku got a second with half an hour gone thanks to a horrendous error from legendary goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, who spilt a Marcus Rashford shot into the path of the Belgian.
From there the action slowed down and despite United pushing, the game appeared to be beyond their reach. But somehow, with injury time ticking away, a speculative shot from substitute Diego Dalot was adjudged by VAR to have been handled by Kimpembe, and United were awarded a penalty.
Rashford – apparently the coolest man in Paris – smashed it home despite the protests of PSG’s players, and the Red Devils had completed a comeback almost as stirring as that inspired by Solskjaer 2 decades beforehand.
