PSG misses out on Champions League again as Dortmund reaches final

The central defender of Borussia Dortmund Mats Hummels led the team into the Champions League final as the German team won 1-0 against Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday.

A few moments after Warren Zaïre-Emery missed an open goal for PSG, Hummels rose unchallenged to head in the corner by Julian Brandt from the left in the 50th minute.

Dortmund advanced 2-0 on aggregate and largely contained Kylian Mbappé, the PSG striker who is scheduled to leave at the end of the season.

PSG had possession of the ball for the most part in the last 10 minutes, reports Washington Post.

Dortmund Goalkeeper Kobel palmed away Mbappé’s attempt, and then pushed Mbappé’s deflected close-range effort onto the crossbar with a brilliant one-handed save. The Parc des Princes crowd groaned when midfielder Vitinha’s thumping 25m attempt rattled the woodwork.

“I don’t know what to say,” said a distraught Vitinha.

Coach Edin Terzić’s team will play either Real Madrid, the record 14-time champion, or the six-time winner, Bayern Munich, on June 1 at the Wembley Stadium. Madrid and Bayern had drawn 2-2 in the first leg and play on Wednesday.

Terzić said he was extremely proud and happy thought they deserved to go to the final.

He said they beat a team like PSG twice and once again kept a clean sheet. He believed that they started off really well and kept PSG away from the goal.

Dortmund is on course for the Champions League trophy a second time after winning in 1997, and a third European trophy, having won the now defunct UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup in 1966. Dortmund had also reached the Champions League final once before in 2013, only losing to Bayern.

“Indescribable. After more than 10 years, I am in the final with Borussia again,” said Dortmund’s veteran midfielder Marco Reus, who is scheduled to leave the team after this season.

For PSG, this was yet another season without raising the trophy its Qatari owners crave, despite spending a large amount of money on star players such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Neymar, Lionel Messi, and Mbappé. PSG lost to Bayern in its only Champions League final back in 2020.