Superlatives are often sought in football. For outstanding performance by a player. For last-minute goals that were no longer thought possible. A terrible refereeing performance – from the loser’s point of view. A goosebumps atmosphere in the stadium. Or an incredible comeback.
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They are often used in an inflationary manner and are exaggerated for neutral observers. But then there are football games where superlatives are appropriate – what’s more: you can’t avoid them to describe what happened.
There is hardly a game that is more true than the Champions League game, which went down in history as the “Miracle of Camp Nou” or “La Remontada” (Spanish: “the comeback”). The duel on the evening of March 8, 2017 was one of the most memorable games the premier class has ever seen.
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Champions League: Will PSG experience another disaster against Barca?
The pairing back then: FC Barcelona against Paris Saint-Germain – a clash that has now resulted in the draw for the Champions League quarter-finals. Given the history, football fans across Europe should be looking forward to the duel – apart from the PSG supporters, who will probably look back on that time with all sorts of bitter feelings.
But what happened in the second leg of the round of 16 in 2017?
Something that had never happened before in the Champions League happened! Barca became the first team ever to overturn a four-goal deficit from the first leg and move into the next round. 48 teams had previously failed to achieve this. And neither has anyone else since.
On the day of March 8, 2017, it didn’t initially seem as if an exciting European Cup evening was imminent. Paris Saint-Germain defeated the Spaniards 4-0 in the first leg in the Prinzenpark. After the sweeping victory, the French already felt like they had one hand on the pot. The sheikhs’ billion-dollar investments would finally pay off. But things turned out differently.
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In fact, Barca’s coach Luis Enrique said this sentence before the game: “If Paris scored four goals in the first leg, we can just as easily score six in the second leg.” The coach relied on full power in the offensive, compared to the first leg a 4-3-3 to 3-4-3.
Barca’s ambitions, which many people acknowledged with a tired smile, were also confirmed by Brazilian superstar Neymar, then still with the Catalans, before the game: “We will play the game of games.”
Barca’s elimination seemed almost certain
Early in the third minute, Barcelona took the lead thanks to a Luis Suárez header. The Catalans’ passionate and offensive demeanor paid off immediately. After that nothing happened for a while, Barca claimed penalties twice, but hoped in vain for the whistle from the German referee Deniz Aytekin. In the 40th minute, Parisian Layvin Kurzawa stumbled the ball into his own goal after a failed pass from Andrés Iniesta – the score was 2-0 at the break.
The second half started with another contentious scene. The stumbling Thomas Meunier from PSG fell into the path of Neymar in the penalty area. Lionel Messi safely converted the penalty to make it 3-0: “La Remontada” – the comeback – was within reach.
But in the 62nd minute, Paris scored with Edinson Cavani to make it 3-1. Due to the away goals rule that was still in effect at the time, Barca now needed a five-goal lead to advance to the next round. Some of the Barca fans present thought this was almost impossible and headed home after the goal was conceded.
If only they had stayed.
Three minutes before the end of regular time, the Catalans were still three goals short, so the French could already mentally plan for the quarter-finals. However, Barca threw everything forward. The Neymar show began: after a fantastic free kick in the 88th minute, which the Brazilian screwed into the top left corner, the score was 4-1.
Marc-André ter Stegen becomes an unsung hero
A little later, the exciting scene of the game: Barcelona attacker Suárez went down in a running duel with Paris defender Marquinhos after slight contact. Aytekin decided on a penalty – Paris no longer understood the world and raged against the German referee. Neymar took the penalty in the first minute of injury time. The Brazilian scored again against goalkeeper Kevin Trapp, who was still guarding the PSG goal at the time.
While Trapp was experiencing one of the bitterest games of his career to date, another German goalkeeper on the other side became an unsung hero – and initiated the decision that made the madness complete.
Marc-André ter Stegen, still 24 years old at the time, would end up having more passes to his teammates than any PSG professional on the pitch. That statistic alone would be crazy enough. But the action that would be particularly memorable occurred in the 95th minute.
Barca were awarded a free kick. The German national goalkeeper ran into the PSG penalty area. In the first attempt, the French cleared the ball out of the danger zone. But Ter Stegen sprinted backwards and won the ball back on the halfway line.
Marc-Andre ter Stegen (left) was rudely fouled by Marco Verratti
PSG professional Marco Verratti roughly tackled the German: a free kick. Ter Stegen once again forced his way into the crowd of players in the penalty area, went into a header duel after the long ball, so that the ball landed at teammate Neymar via another station.
6-1 in added time: The Catalan miracle was perfect
The rest is history: Cross to Sergi Roberto. He kept his toe in the path of the ball. Goal to make it 6:1.
The Catalan miracle was perfect – the Remontada was a success. Luis Enrique was right and the whole stadium was overflowing with emotions – the fans’ cheers after the last-minute goal could later even be measured as a slight earthquake. Tears of joy from Barca supporters and players, dejection from the Paris side.
The Spanish press celebrated Barca exuberantly – the media response to PSG in France was devastating.
This is how the Spanish Marca celebrated: “A race to catch up for the history books.” The Mundo Deportivo wrote: “The most wonderful miracle. Barca prints one of the most sensational pages in football history. The Camp Nou transformed into the theater of the most impossible dreams becoming reality. This evening will remain in everyone’s memory forever.”
PSG to date without a Champions League title
The French L’Équipe found drastic words for PSG: “A historic shipwreck. This humiliation calls the entire ‘Paris Project’ into question. Paris is a tragedy. This should never have happened. At the height of disillusionment. Under Qatari ownership, Paris has failed four times in the round of 16.” Le Figaro headlined: “A historic fiasco. Barcelona crushes Paris’ dreams. Unai Emery’s team was unrecognizable. It was a collective intellectual failure.”
To date, with the enormous sums invested in the PSG project, the Qatari sheikhs have not achieved the Champions League title. Five-time Champions League winners Barcelona lost to Juventus Turin in the quarter-finals one round later in 2017 – but fans will remember the “Miracle of Camp Nou” for a long time.