This was set up to be an amazing year for FC Barcelona but a red card had to go and ruin it. PSG did what good football teams do: took full advantage.
Peace has been made within the Barcelona squad and their focus has now turned to usurping Real Madrid in the 2023/24 La Liga title race.
This does not stop the discussions among fans though and it is with this in mind that we bring you a list of the best-performing players across both ties of the PSG vs Barcelona quarter-final clash in the 2023/24 UEFA Champions League.
Raphinha
Raphinha is a new man since returning from injury and Barcelona fans could not be happier. Even his manager, Xavi Hernandez, has had to make space for him on the team just so that he can play both him and the prodigious Lamine Yamal together.
The FIFA World Cup-winning midfielder-turned-manager is even making concessions to fit Raphinha in midfield. He showed his quality in the UEFA Champions League tie against Paris Saint-Germain with his eight shots, four key passes and three successful dribbles across both legs. Three of his eight shots ended up as goals – two openers and one equaliser – which made him the club’s highest-rated player from the tie.
To provide more context: PSG won the tie 6 – 4 on aggregate and Raphinha scored three of the Catalan club’s four goals.
The former Sporting CP Portugal and Leeds United man can be proud of how he performed even though he has played his last UCL game for the season – and possibly his last for Barcelona too, as there are rumours about his exit from the club in the summer.
Ousmane Dembélé
In football, there are a few things better than – or on par with – winning individual awards, winning trophies or winning a Golden Boot/Shoe award for scoring the most goals in a competition. One of those things is returning to the grounds you once called home and putting in a performance so classical that the fans of that club have no choice but to shut up and applaud you or to just shut up altogether.
European football does not have many of these moments because it is rare for players to face their former clubs in the UCL. Ousmane Dembélé can count himself lucky to be among those who have enjoyed such a privilege. Raphinha stopped him from earning the man-of-the-match award in the first leg, but in the second leg, he stopped Raphinha.
It was a full-circle moment for Dembélé, who will now face Borussia Dortmund in the UCL 2023/24 semis. Both Dortmund vs PSG tickets for the first leg and PSG tickets for the second leg of their semi-final tie are available on seatsnet.com.
Jules Kounde
Jules Kounde chose Barcelona out of several options including Real Madrid and Chelsea in the 2022/23 season. The French defender, 25, showed exactly why he cost €55 million in his first season and in his second season, has put in performances that have seen his value rise to €70 million at the very least (even though Transfermarkt values him at €50 million).
One of such performances is the one he put up against Paris Saint-Germain while playing at right-back for Barcelona. Despite being a natural centre-back, his versatility makes him capable of also holding down the right-back role. He nullified Kylian Mbappé in the first leg and also provided help for young defender Pau Cubarsí in both legs when the French dynamo attempted to penetrate the Blaugrana defence through the centre.
It is a sad end to a brilliant campaign he was having where he was on course to make the team of the season. Barcelona fans will be looking forward to another great Kounde outing whether as a right-back or a centre-back in next season’s Champions League.
Vitinha
Semi-final first-leg Dortmund vs PSG tickets and second-leg PSG vs Dortmund tickets are on sale on the trusted ticket reselling platform seatsnet.com thanks to Vitinha’s heroics for the French giants.
The tickets could very well have been Barcelona vs Dortmund because a proper analysis of the game showed that Xavi Hernandez outcoached Luis Enrique. The former Spain national team manager had Vitinha and Dembélé, however, which has put them in a position to deal with Dortmund for the second time in this season’s competition.
Vitinha’s goal in the first leg to put pressure on Barcelona and his goal in the second leg to draw level on aggregate with the Catalans proved to be very important to their mission to reach the semis. He also showed up in the middle of the park, outplaying his Barcelona counterparts and contributing meaningfully to PSG’s attacks with five shots, five key passes and two successful dribbles across both legs.
Fans will hope the midfielder can be just as useful against Borussia Dortmund as they aim to reach their second-ever UEFA Champions League final.
Kylian Mbappé
Jules Kounde may have kept him quiet in both legs of the PSG-Barcelona tie, limiting his involvement to the two winning goals that sent PSG through to the semis, but Kylian Mbappé’s inevitability is something that the football world is fast becoming accustomed to.
He has already matched his best goal-scoring season in the UCL and has topped his best goalscoring campaign in all competitions since he became a superstar at PSG. He is on course to finishing with his first double-digit campaign in the UCL as well thanks to a semi-final meeting with Borussia Dortmund, an opponent who he has five goal contributions in just six appearances against.
He struggled to create much, but he was such a presence that the Blaugrana had to double-team him at times, leaving space for Dembélé and others to shine.
The two goals he scored in the second leg at Estadi Lluis Companys meant that Barcelona are his favourite opponent in the UCL. With six goals in four matches against them, the Catalan club will surely be dreading his transfer to Real Madrid.
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