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French Champions Knock Leverkusen Out

 

Paris St Germain reached the Champions League quarter-finals after a 2-1 (6-1 on aggregate) win over Bayer Leverkusen.

Leading 4-0 from the first leg in Germany, it would have taken a huge upset for PSG not to progress and, despite having a couple of scares, the big-spending French champions did just that with a second-leg triumph at the Parc des Princes.

The first scare for Laurent Blanc’s men came when Leverkusen took the lead after just six minutes through Sidney Sam, but the hosts quickly responded with Marquinhos heading them level just seven minutes later.

PSG nerves would have been tingling again just before the half-hour when battling Leverkusen won a penalty.

A goal then could have made things interesting, even though Leverkusen would still have had a massive mountain to climb – but Simon Rolfes saw his spot-kick saved by Salvatore Sirigu and PSG did not look back after that.

Ezequiel Lavezzi put them 2-1 ahead on the night at the start of the second half before Leverkusen lost Emre Can to a red card, ending any slim hopes of a possible upset.

The 2002 Champions League finalists were determined not to go down without a fight and they stunned PSG when Sam gave them an early lead, the Germany international getting on the end of Giulio Donati’s cross to head home at the far post.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic was unlucky not to net the equaliser himself, Leverkusen goalkeeper Bernd Leno deflecting his low shot behind with his leg, but from the resulting corner PSG did score with Marquinhos powerfully heading in Yohan Cabaye’s flag kick.

PSG seemed to have recovered from that early setback, but they received further warning Leverkusen were not going to roll over as the visitors won a penalty in the 27th minute when Christophe Jallet tugged back Eren Derdiyok.

That was a great chance for Leverkusen to put the pressure on PSG, but Sirigu dived to his left to push away Rolfes’ spot-kick.

Leno denied Edinson Cavani before the break but he was powerless to stop Lavezzi slotting in Lucas Digne’s cut-back in the 53rd minute, the ball going through a group of players on its way into the net to make it 2-1.

Both sides continued to create chances, Derdiyok and PSG duo Javier Pastore and Adrien Rabiot being denied by the respective keepers, but there was never any doubt who was going through.

 

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