LISBON – Atalanta, debutants in the Champions League, led by a goal to nil heading into the final stages, but PSG’s superstars turned the tide with two goals in the last five minutes to win 2-1 on Wednesday night.

  Paris-Saint Germain, one of the wealthiest clubs in the world, whose star player Neymar reportedly earns as much as the entire Atalanta squad, looked to be heading out of Europe at the quarter-final stage once more.

 After the Brazilian Neymar missed a one-on-one with the goalkeeper, Mario Pasalic scored a wonderful left-footed finish on 26 minutes to put the underdogs ahead. The game stayed at 1-0 until the 90th minute when Neymar teed up Marquinhos to tap in, followed devastatingly quickly by a final blow as Kylian Mbappé supplied Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting to knock out the last Italian side in the competition three minutes later.

 The game changed when, with half an hour left, French starlet Mbappé came onto the pitch having been left on the bench with an injury. Mbappé, the second most expensive player in the world, wrought havoc on a tiring Atalanta side and, alongside Neymar, they overwhelmed the Italians to scupper hopes of an unlikely win in the dying moments.  

 Atalanta were the last Italian team left in the Champions League after Juventus lost to another French side, Lyon at the round-of-16 stage. All Italian hopes of success in Europe now rest on Antonio Conte's Inter side, who face Shaktar Donetsk in the Europa League semi-final on Monday.

 Atalanta’s story in the competition had stolen hearts up until this point, never before having appeared in Europe’s elite club tournament. The team from Bergamo, known as La Dea (the goddess), had surprised many by making it this far while delighting with fast-paced attacking football. Bergamo itself has suffered greatly over the last few months with an estimated 3,000 of its 120,000 person population dying during the Coronavirus pandemic.

 While PSG missed some of their biggest players including Angel di María and Marco Verratti, Atalanta were without Slovenian Josip Ilicic, scorer of 30 per cent of their goals this season, and their regular goalkeeper Pierluigi Gollini. Nonetheless PSG progress to the semi-finals, looking to fulfil the expectations of owners and fans alike after their enormous spending in the transfer market.

 The Atalanta players will return to Bergamo proud of a resilient performance but aware of how close they were. Next year they will have another chance however, after having qualified for the Champions League with a fourth-place finish in the Serie A. Their manager Gien Piero Gasperini summed up their emotions after the game, reflecting “It seemed as though we'd done it, there was so little left…But we’re happy nonetheless.”

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