Paris Saint-Germain 1-2 Real Madrid: Champions League highlights and recap

Real Madrid beat PSG 2-1 in the Champions League on Tuesday, March 6. Here are all the highlights from the match.

Real Madrid secured their passage to the Champions League quarterfinals on Tuesday, beating PSG 2-1 at the Parc des Princes thanks to second-half goals from Cristiano Ronaldo and Casemiro, which came either side of an Edinson Cavani strike.

PSG needed a two-goal win to go through, but never troubled Real to a point where that looked possible. The first half was a scrappy affair, with the visitors happy to sit deep and play on the counter-attack.

The approach didn’t make for a particularly exciting contest between two extremely talented teams, but it did ensure Real created the better of the chances. Karim Benzema had the best of them all, but he couldn’t finish when played through one-on-one by Marcelo.

Los Blancos opened the scoring early in the second half, however, effectively ending the tie as a contest. Ronaldo continued his astonishing scoring streak in Europe with a powerful back post header after Marco Asensio and Lucas Vazquez combined well on the left.

Any hope PSG might have had of completing the sort of comeback that knocked them out of the competition last season appeared to be extinguished in the 66th minute, when Marco Verratti, booked for a foul in the first half, got a second yellow card for dissent.

However, going down to 10 seemed to galvanize Unai Emery’s players, or at least caused Real to take their foot off the gas, as Cavani got one back for the hosts in the 71st minute, bundling in after Real failed to clear a cross.

That was as good as it got for PSG. With Real happy to keep possession and the game petering out, Casemiro, with the help of a sizable deflection, gave Real the lead on the night and silenced what had until that point been an impressively loud Paris crowd.

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Highlights

The quarterfinal draw takes place on Friday, March 16.