If – before a ball was kicked – you’d have offered Paris Saint-Germain a narrow defeat in front of the Yellow Wall in their UEFA Champions League semifinal first leg against Borussia Dortmund, there’s a good chance they’d have snapped your hand off. Signal Iduna Park isn’t an easy place to visit, just as Atletico Madrid found out in the last round, as the Parisians found out in the group stages. As such, the chance to take die BVB back to the Parc des Princes with just a solitary Niclas Füllkrug goal to overturn initially appears a tantalising prospect.
However, they – and you – may well be surprised to hear that very few one-goal first-leg leads have been overturned since the tournament became a one-group stage event back in 2004. You have to go back 17 years for the third most recent of them. Admittedly, there have been some more impressive comebacks, with Liverpool’s stunning victory against Barcelona in 2019 immediately springing to mind. But for just the solitary goal, things are very few and far between.
Two Goals in 60 Seconds See Real Madrid Past Manchester City
This year, online football odds providers have made Real Madrid the short-priced 6/5 favourites to win the Champions League for a record-extending 15th time. And perhaps rightly so. They eliminated reigning champions Manchester City in the quarterfinals, and they did the same in the semis two years ago.
In a clash that would later be hailed as one of the most thrilling encounters in the competition’s lustrous history, Los Blancos faced the Blues in the second leg at the Bernabeu looking to overturn a one-goal deficit. The first leg at the Etihad was a goal-fest that ended in a 4-3 victory for the hosts, and it looked as though they were safely on the plane to Paris when Riyad Mahrez made the deficit two goals in the 73rd minute.
However, the Spanish capital was about to witness the drama unfold. With the clock ticking into injury time and the hosts needing to find two goals, they did exactly that in 60 barnstorming seconds. Both goals came from Brazilan attacker Rodrygo, which took the contest to extra time. That set the stage for Karim Benzema, who had been sensational throughout the season, to convert a late penalty and seal Real Madrid’s place in the final against all odds.
🇧🇷 Four years since THAT Lucas Moura hat-trick in Amsterdam ⚽⚽⚽#UCL pic.com/gji57V8SyB
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) May 8, 2023
Second Half Lucas Moura Hat Trick Breaks Ajax Hearts
The 2018/19 semifinal between Ajax and Tottenham Hotspur is another chapter in the book of breathtaking Champions League comebacks. Ajax, having secured a 1-0 victory in London, returned to the Johan Cruyff Arena with hopes of reaching their first final since 1996. The first half in Amsterdam seemed to confirm the home side’s safe passage to the final, with the Dutch outfit leading 2-0 at halftime – 3-0 on aggregate – thanks to goals from captain Matthijs De Ligt and winger Hakim Ziyech.
However, the second half presented a narrative twist that would see Tottenham’s Lucas Moura become a hero for the North London club. The Brazilian scored two goals in four minutes shortly after halftime, taking the visitors to the brink of the final. Erik Ten Hag’s man pled on the pressure and missed a host of chances that would have taken them to the Madrd-based final, however, they couldn’t convert. That left Moura to net his hat trick with the last kick of the game in the sixth minute of injury time, completing an unbelievable turnaround and sending Spurs to their first-ever Champions League final.
