Ousmane Dembele returned to haunt his former club Barcelona with a goal in a madcap exchange that saw Kylian Mbappe shown a yellow card.
Dembele had been the subject of jeers inside the Estadi Olimpic from the home crowd for celebrating his goal in Paris Saint-Germain‘s 3-2 defeat in the first leg last week.
The Frenchman ironically kept his celebrations mute back in Spain after scoring PSG’s equaliser on the night.
Seconds later, Mbappe and Barca man Inigo Martinez were both booked amid a scramble for the ball after Dembele scored.
Mbappe, who will likely be facing Barcelona as a rival player for Real Madrid next season, understandably made a mad dash for the ball in an effort to restart the game with PSG still trailing 4-3 on aggregate.
Having found himself denied by Martinez looking to stop PSG’s momentum, Mbappe furiously gestured to referee Istvan Kovacs and the pair were both carded.
Barcelona looked on course for the semi-final following Raphinha‘s early strike, but Ronald Arajuo’s straight red card after half an hour turned the tie on its head.
The Uruguayan was penalised for wiping out youngster Bradley Barcola from behind when the 21-year-old was through on goal.
Barcola was then the man to engineer PSG’s equaliser after his low cross was turned into the roof of the net by Dembele.
The goal meant Dembele has now scored in consecutive Champions League matches for the first time since October 2020 – when he was playing for Barcelona.
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Dembele then narrowly avoided adding insult to injury, with the 26-year-old almost rifling in PSG’s second before the break.
The France international caught Nuno Mendes’ cross sweetly on the volley that was a whisker wide of the far post.
Barcelona held on to the half-time whistle and remain a goal ahead on aggregate but will have to play the remaining 45 minutes a man down.
