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Paris Saint-Germain coach Mauricio Pochettino told his players to shake off their negative mindset in a 1-1 draw against Barcelona on Wednesday, as they completed a 5-2 aggregate victory to reach the quarter-finals. of the Champions League.
PSG suffered a humiliating exit at the hands of Barcelona in 2017 when the Spanish team thrashed them 6-1 to come back from 4-0 in the first leg in the round of 16 and briefly it seemed that another difficult night could be at stake in the Parque de the princes.
After PSG’s Kylian Mbappé, who scored a hat-trick in the first leg at the Camp Nou, opened the scoring with a penalty against the run, Lionel Messi tied with an astonishing 25-meter missile before delivering a stepped forward to take a penalty after Layvin Kurzawa fouled Antoine Griezmann.
He could have put Barça within two goals of forcing extra time against a PSG who seemed uninspired and shaky, but Kaylor Navas made a decisive save when Messi missed his first penalty in the competition since 2015.
“In the first half we thought too much,” Pochettino said. “We were thinking too much about qualifying and not enough about playing.
‘I told the players to shake off those negative thoughts and think about the game. We weren’t happy with that first half and we told the players about it. ”
PSG had another traumatic experience in 2019 when they exited Manchester United in the round of 16 after giving up a 2-0 lead in the first leg.
Since then, they have reached the final in 2020 and finally managed to bury the demons of 2017 on Wednesday.
They have Navas to thank for his victory as the goalkeeper, who won the Champions League in three years in a row since 2016 with Real Madrid, had a night to remember.
Before saving Messi’s penalty, he denied striker Ousmane Dembélé three times and landed another pair of big saves in the second half.
“We suffered a lot in the first half,” Pochettino told RMC Sport. ‘We struggled with the first pass. Psychologically it was a test because we talked a lot about the past. In the second half we show a different face.
“What is clear is that we thought too much in the first half. We were overthinking qualifying, that’s what I told the players.
I asked them to play. Of course I was not happy, I told the players, but sometimes it happens and we were more combative in the second half. The important thing is that we are done. We must get away from negative thoughts. ‘
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
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