Stats & facts: Qualification in Barcelona
In the wake of Paris Saint-Germain's 4-1 victory over FC Barcelona at the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys on Tuesday 10 April, here are the key facts and figures from the UEFA Champions League quarter-final return leg.
LES ROUGE ET BLEU SMOTHER BARCELONA
Dominant from start to finish on Tuesday, Paris Saint-Germain forced Barcelona to concede their lowest rate of possession in the Champions League since Opta began analysing the competition (2003-2004) - just 32.7%! Until PSG's 4-1 win, the Catalans' lowest rate of possession was 41.4%... in the first leg against the Parisians.
Qualifying after a spectacular double-header, the capital club eliminated a Spanish team from the Champions League finals for the fifth time, their highest total ever against representatives of the same country. Moreover, Paris are the team that has eliminated Barcelona from the Champions League the most times in history (three times - in the quarter-finals in 1995, in the Round of 16 in 2021 and in the quarter-finals in 2024).
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE MODE ACTIVATED FOR KYLIAN MBAPPÉ
With two goals against the Blaugrana, Kylian Mbappé scored his 47th and 48th Champions League goals, joining Andriy Shevchenko and Zlatan Ibrahimovic as the ninth-highest scorers in the competition's history (since 1992/93). Kylian Mbappé has always been at his best away from home, and on tuesday he scored his 14th and 15th away goals in the Champions League knockout phase, making him the second-highest such scorer in the competition's history, behind Cristiano Ronaldo (23). The Paris striker is ahead of Karim Benzema (14), Lionel Messi (12) and Sadio Mané (10).
With Paris Saint-Germain, Kylian Mbappé now has the incredible total of 65 goal involvements: 42 goals and 23 assists. In his last 32 matches on the European stage, the French international has been involved in 37 goals for Les Rouge et Bleu (29 goals, eight assists).
And to say the least, our striker loves to rub shoulders with Spanish teams, having found the net in eight of his last nine Champions League matches against a Spanish side, scoring a total of 12 goals in the process. Kylian Mbappé has now scored six goals against Barcelona in the Champions League, his highest tally against a single opponent in the competition, and is second only to Thomas Müller (8) as the player to have found the net most often against the Catalan club in the Champions League.
PARIS, THE CAPITAL CLUB IN FRANCE
After turning things around to book their place in the final four, Paris Saint-Germain became the first French club to qualify for the next round in the Champions League knockout phase after suffering defeat at home in the first leg. Les Rouge et Bleu have reached the last four of the competition for the fourth time in their history, following on from 1995, 2020 and 2021. No French club has racked up this many appearances at this stage of the Champions League before.