Lucho pulled the rabbit out of the hat. The miracle at Camp Nou, they say.

Gautham Prakash
4 min readMar 9, 2017

In the adrenaline rush, Barcelona thrived. PSG wilted. What a comeback!

It’s only been a few hours since the unthinkable happened and I’ve heard both arguments.

  • The greatest comeback in the competition.
  • It doesn’t match the drama of United-Bayern ’99 / Istanbul ’05

I don’t want to compare it. At least, not now.

Barcelona dished out entertainment of the highest order. They deserved the victory. It was champion material.

When you have 90,000 strong supporters cheering you in one of the greatest sporting arenas, that adrenaline kicks it. Barcelona thrived, Paris Saint-Germain wilted. But to score 6 goals to progress is just phenomenal. Even for the mighty Catalans! So yes, it’s a miracle at Camp Nou indeed.

We left Paris very down and now this is incredible. We were prepared for all this. The fans were like 10 extra players and in the end this is all for them — Sergio Roberto

The Blaugrana exhibited so much energy from the word go. That Luis Suarez opener unnerved PSG. Unai Emery should know it better than anyone. After all, he witnessed it when his Sevilla landed a killer blow to Liverpool with the equalizer in the first minute of second half of the Europa League final last year.

By now, we have universally agreed that PSG got their tactics wrong. They walked right up Barca’s alley and knocked on the gates of hell. Barcelona gave they a hiding they’ll never forget. Sure, if they had pulled it off with such a defensive setup, we would have hailed the tactical genius of Unai Emery. Well, it didn’t happen. The PSG players’ were polarizing figures from the first leg. It’s hard to believe this team actually terrorized Barcelona in Paris. This is going to leave a scar. One ugly looking scar. It just might unravel the season for the Parisian club.

Yes, the Suarez penalty win certainly helped Barcelona’s task. But you can’t be overly critical of the referee here. There was contact and the angle made it difficult to judge the extent of it. The ref had already whipped a yellow card at Suarez’s face. He had to process if the forward dived in spite of that. All this in a few seconds. In the end, the ref made a gutsy call. Sure, you can still blame the ref.

But what about the clear cut chances that PSG squandered? Had Cavani or Di Maria’s one on one’s with Marc ter Stegen ended in the back of the net, it would have been game over. Neymar’s penalty would have been inconsequential then. The gravity of their fails reminded me of Arjen Robben vs Iker Casillas in the final of World Cup’ 10.

Forget all that, what’s the excuse when you concede three in seven minutes?

Neymar, take a bow Senhor

This is the best game I have ever played. For what it meant, for what we experienced and because I am in great form

We’ll remember this night for the madness that unfolded. It also the night that Neymar truly put Messi in the background. What a performance. What a freakin’ performance! The Brazilian was the best player on that pitch.

My God, that free kick was exquisite. Supreme technical skills to generate the power and squeeze it through that fine angle into the back of the net. Marvellous it was. That was as good as any I’ve ever seen. No keeper would have saved it.

Despite Messi scoring the first penalty, it was great call to have Neymar take the second. The Argentine was bit lucky that he had the power to slot it past Kevin Trapp. Taking two in a row in a tense situation like this gets to the best. Neymar’s confidence was sky high from that outstanding free kick minutes before. Riding that wave, he stepped up for the penalty. A cool head was needed. The Brazilian delivered. He wrapped it up with that teasing ball for Sergio Roberts to complete a memorable comeback. 10/10 for the elegant forward.

There’s a saying in football;

A four goal cushion is no cushion at all.

If you haven’t heard of it it, well now, you’ve witnessed it!

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Gautham Prakash

A bit about life, much about football, all about LFC. Come over to the emerald isle of Ceylon and let’s talk the beautiful game by the ocean. Beer is on me.