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Ousmane Dembele and Kylian Mbappe broke Barcelona hearts on Tuesday as they helped inspire Paris Saint-Germain to an awesome comeback victory to send the French giants into the semi-finals of the Champions League. Ex-Barca winger Dembele scored once and won a penalty on his return to Catalunya, while Mbappe struck twice as PSG won 4-1 in the second leg of their quarter-final tie.
Dembele overcame relentless jeers from the home crowd and a disappointing start that saw his side go a goal behind when Lamine Yamal jinked past Nuno Mendes and whipped the ball in for Raphinha to divert home.
The match took a huge turn in PSG's favour, though, when Ronald Araujo was sent off for bringing down Bradley Barcola just outside the box after half an hour. A little over 10 minutes later, the French side were level and it was, surprise, surprise, Dembele who blasted in the equaliser amid the constant boos that came his way throughout the half.
It was in the second half that Barca seemed to unravel, though, as PSG's dominance grew. Less than 10 minutes into the half, the hosts gave Vitinha all the time in the world to line up a shot and blast into the bottom corner from outside the box. Then, within a few minutes, Barcelona coach Xavi was sent off and Kylian Mbappe had made it 3-1 by sending a penalty kick high into the net after Joao Cancelo had fouled Dembele in the box.
Oddly, Barca showed some proper fight later in the half as Robert Lewandowski forced Gianluigi Donnarumma into an excellent save and Raphinha had a couple of good efforts, but their misery was compounded by Mbappem who finished at the second time of asking after a late counter-attack.
In the end, Luis Enrique was on the right end of a great comeback as PSG ran out 6-4 aggregate winners, exorcising the ghosts of that famous Remontada he oversaw as Barca coach in 2017.
GOAL rates Luis Enrique's players from Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys...
