Hummels surprises Mbappé and PSG and takes Dortmund to the Champions League final

May 9, 2024 Vaseline stjohnson 0

Mats Hummels headed Borussia Dortmund’s only goal as they stunned Kylian Mbappé and Paris Saint-Germain in the second leg of their Champions League semi-finals on Tuesday, winning 1-0 that night and advancing 2-0 in the aggregate at next month’s final at Wembley.

Hummels scored five minutes into the second half at the Parc des Princes and PSG were unable to react, with the home team unlucky as they hit the woodwork four times in total.

Dortmund, fifth in the German Bundesliga, was never expected to go this far and will be the underdog in the final on June 1, regardless of whether it faces old rivals Bayern Munich or Real Madrid, who meet on Wednesday.

It will be their first final since 2013, when, interestingly, the match was also played at Wembley and Jurgen Klopp’s Dortmund lost to Bayern.

Hummels played in that final and here, 11 years later, he was the hero as Dortmund took advantage of the lead given to them by Niclas Fuellkrug’s goal in the first leg.

“It will take us a little time to realize it, but we are really looking forward to it,” Dortmund coach Edin Terzic told broadcaster Amazon Prime about reaching the final.

“We did it somehow and made it to London.”

The story of this semi-final, however, is above all about PSG’s failure in another crucial tie in the competition.

They have still never won the trophy despite all the money invested by their Qatari owners since the 2011 takeover, and there will be no dream farewell for Mbappé.

He will leave when his contract expires after this season and was hoping to play his last game for the club in the June 1 final.

Instead, PSG will have to reflect on how they failed to clinch the biggest trophy of all during Mbappé’s seven years at his hometown team.

“We were not clinical enough. They scored two goals, one from a corner and another from a long ball. We created many more chances, many more than them, but we did not take advantage of them,” PSG captain Marquinhos told Canal Plus.

“We were very close and we wanted to get to the final. But we had to win tonight and be more clinical, and we didn’t.”

PSG’s last two semi-final appearances have come during the pandemic, meaning this was the first time they have hosted a match at this stage of a European competition with fans in 29 years, since losing to AC Milan in 1995.

CARPENTRY TO THE RESCUE

Luis Enrique’s team had beaten Dortmund 2-0 at home in the group stage and knew that repeating that performance would be enough.

The PSG coach made an important decision in the selection: he ruled out Bradley Barcola and brought in Portuguese striker Gonçalo Ramos. That meant moving Mbappé from the center to the left wing.

Dortmund would have prepared for an attack from the start, but that did not happen.

It took Mbappé just seven minutes to make his first attempt, but his volley was easily saved by Dortmund goalkeeper Gregor Kobel.

The hosts had most of the possession but struggled to get Mbappe into the game as the France captain often looked isolated on the wing.

In fact, it was Dortmund who had the best chance of the first half, when Karim Adeyemi led a counterattack before his shot was saved by Gianluigi Donnarumma.

It seemed as if the hosts needed to change something or risk going out with a whimper.

They should have gone ahead two minutes after the restart, when Ramos touched a ball pushed into the area by Mbappé, but Warren Zaire-Emery managed to hit the post from close range.

That proved crucial when Dortmund scored moments later.

PSG conceded a corner cheaply and Hummels headed in Julian Brandt’s pass from the Dortmund right.

Ramos fired over on the hour mark before Nuno Mendes became the second PSG player to hit the right post, this time with a powerful shot from distance.

It was beginning to look like it would not be PSG’s night, and Luis Enrique realized that he had to act and sent Barcola and Marco Asensio for Ramos and Fabián Ruiz, moving Mbappé through the middle.

Dortmund sent in an extra defender, the burly Niklas Suele, and they withstood everything PSG threw at them, while also being helped by the frame of the goal.

Kobel deflected Mbappé’s shot onto the crossbar in the 86th minute and Vitinha also hit the woodwork, but Dortmund held on to book their date in London.