The Paris Saint-Germain players felt the breath of elimination pass over their necks. Trailing for 50 minutes, eliminated for four minutes, the Parisiennes finally snatched their qualification for the quarter-finals of the Champions League on Tuesday January 30 in the evening, winning a draw in Munich against Bayern at the end. suspense (2-2).
Sandy Baltimore’s victorious strike from the edge of the area, with only two minutes left to play on the pitch at the Bayern Munich Campus, allowed Jocelyn Prêcheur’s players to move back to the top of a group at the last minute. very tight, with 10 points, ahead of Ajax Amsterdam, also 10 points, who won at home against AS Roma (2-1). Thanks to their advantage in the direct confrontations against Ajax, the Parisiennes even secure first place in the group and top seed status in a week for the draw for the quarter-finals.
But the path to avoid an early exit was complicated and tortuous for PSG, who only needed a draw to qualify after their victory last week against Ajax, and who started the match leaving possession of the ball for Munich during the first quarter of an hour.
Dominated, the Parisiennes logically conceded the first goal of the game in the 36th minute. On a corner for Munich, Giulia Gwinn headed goalkeeper Constance Picaud to open the score (1-0). After this goal, Alexander Straus’ players continued to push, and Harder’s 20-meter shot went very close to Picaud’s target.
A saving goal then a scare
At half-time, the Parisians were still qualified, because in the other match, Ajax and Roma were tied (1-1), the Dutch responding to the opening score of the Italians.
After returning from the locker room, we had to wait until the 53rd minute for Paris’ first big chance. It came from captain Grace Geyoro, whose attempt at the edge of the penalty area was saved by Bayern goalkeeper Maria Luisa Grohs. Twenty minutes from the end, the Parisiennes began to press on the Munich goal, and took advantage of a disagreement between Tuva Hansen and his goalkeeper Grohs to equalize through Tabitha Chawinga (1-1, 73rd).
Glodis Viggosdottir’s teammates reacted immediately: on a precise cross from Bühl for Sydney Lohmann, the Bayern striker placed a header out of Picaud’s reach to regain the advantage (2-1, 75th). Things got worse for the Parisians when in Amsterdam, Ajax regained the advantage over AS Rome (2-1) and pushed PSG to third place in the group, a sign of elimination.
The deliverance finally came from Sandy Baltimore in the 88th minute. On a corner played on her outside the area, she placed a shot which pierced the Munich defense, and which the Englishwoman Georgia Stanway involuntarily pushed into her own goal (2-2). The Parisiennes had one last scare in the final moments of added time, when Jovana Damnjanovic scored for Bayern, but the striker was in an offside position.
For the first time in the history of the Women’s Champions League in 2001-2002, there will be no German club in the quarter-finals, although Germany has been the most successful country, nine times .