The other Champions League semifinal, between Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-German, kicks off Wednesday with an intriguing first leg at Signal Iduna Park in Germany.
Dortmund, as the home team, playing in front of its famed Yellow Wall, will push for a win, and a lead that it can take to Paris for next week’s second leg.
But PSG is favored — heavily in the two-leg matchup overall; and slightly on Wednesday, even away from home. It has the world’s best player, Kylian Mbappé, and a golden opportunity to get back to the Champions League final just as its megastar era comes to an end.
Mbappé, of course, is widely reported to be leaving at the end of the season to join Real Madrid. A major factor in his impending departure is PSG’s persistent failures in the Champions League. The Parisians have employed him, Neymar, Lionel Messi and a host of other stars since new Qatari owners began spending big in 2011, but they have only once reached a European final.
Entering this past winter, they had failed to progress past the Round of 16 in five of the last seven seasons. With Neymar and Messi gone, and Mbappé set to depart, their project seemed to be fizzling out.
But they dealt with Real Sociedad in the Round of 16. Last month, they roared back from a first-leg deficit to beat Barcelona in the quarterfinals. Mbappé’s two goals in the second half of the second leg sealed their place in the semifinals.
Now Dortmund awaits. The German club is 11 years removed from its last trip to a Champions League final. And it is struggling in the Bundesliga, stuck in fifth place — meaning it might have to win this year’s competition to even qualify for next year’s.
The winner between PSG and Dortmund will meet either Bayern Munich or Real Madrid in the final. Those two drew 2-2 yesterday.
Wednesday’s first leg kicks off at 3 p.m. ET (9 p.m. in Germany). U.S. viewers can watch on CBS, Paramount+, Univision or TUDN. And you can follow along with Yahoo Sports below.
Source Agencies
