After stringing together a series of victories in the last few months, FC Barcelona fell to a harsh defeat at the hands of Paris Saint Germain last night, which not only ended the patch of the team’s good form, but also eliminated the Catalans from the UEFA Champions League at the quarter-final stage.
After a highly promising start, the Blaugranes were hard done by the expulsion of Ronald Araujo on the 30-minute mark, an event that virtually turned the match and the tie in the favour of the Parisians.
After the Uruguayan’s exit, PSG took full advantage of their numerical superiority, and scored four past Ter Stegen to win the tie 6-4 on aggregate.
Having been in full control with a 4-2 scoreline to conceding four goals and getting eliminated from the top European competition would naturally have been a traumatic episode, especially for the youngsters at Barcelona.
Both Lamine Yamal and Pau Cubarsi were seen shedding tears after this painful defeat last night. However, despite this adversity, the former of these youngsters, Yamal, still retained some optimism after this match.
As the renowned journalist Fabrizio Romano reported, the winger looked absolutely rocked by the result last night, and his condition was there for everyone to see both on the pitch and in the dressing room.
Still, the 16-year-old had a positive message to share after the game, as he stated: “There’s always payback in football… we will be back.”
Nights like this can have a lasting impact on players’ memories, especially on someone as inexperienced to facing adversity as Lamine Yamal.
However, his positive message leaves ample room for Barcelona fans to expect that he will not be impacted too much by this setback, and will in fact come out even stronger to put things right.
Barcelona and Yamal will have a golden chance to restore their pride only in a few days time as they face their fiercest rivals, Real Madrid, in La Liga this weekend.
