Barcelona 1 PSG 4 (4-6 agg) – Barcelona implode, Xavi and Araujo reds, Mbappe’s

Paris Saint-Germain advanced to the semi-finals of the Champions League after knocking Barcelona out on a dramatic night in which the home side had a player and their coach sent off.

Barcelona led 3-2 from the first leg and an early goal from Raphinha at Montjuic put them within sight of the last four.

However, Barcelona defender Ronald Araujo was sent off on the half-hour mark before goals from Ousmane Dembele and Vitinha drew PSG level on aggregate. Kylian Mbappe then scored a 61st-minute penalty and blasted home in the dying stages to send PSG through.

Barcelona manager Xavi was shown a red card in the second half for kicking out on the side of the pitch as his team’s Champions League dream crumbled.

Here, our writers analyse and evaluate the key talking points of an extraordinary game.

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Why was Araujo sent off?

Reflecting on 180 minutes of absorbing, end-to-end football — 59 shots, 10 goals, with countless sprinkles of superstar quality throughout — it feels a shame that it ended without 22 players on the pitch.

But the rules are the rules, and Araujo overstepped the line in a tangle with Bradley Barcola, leaving referee Istvan Kovacs with little choice.

The game ebbed and flowed before the incident, starting and ending with an Araujo misstep; his pass into midfield was overhit, allowing Nuno Mendes to nip in.

Barcelona were caught in their build-up shape, so one pass split their defensive structure and sent the pacey Barcola away, bearing down on goal with only Araujo for company.

Araujo argued that centre-back partner Pau Cubarsi was in a position to cover but that was waved away. He also claimed an innocent shoulder-to-shoulder, but closer inspection reveals multiple points of contact — a hand on the shoulder, a knee to the back of the thigh, and a clip on the back of the foot — to send Barcola to the ground.

Although he fell inside the penalty area, the contact was adjudged to have come outside. As there was no genuine attempt to play the ball, a straight red card and a free kick were the required outcomes.

An agonising end to Araujo’s night, and a harsh twist on which such a high-quality game eventually hinged, but these are the moments you invariably have to face at the business end of the Champions League — and that’s what makes it such a difficult competition to win.

Thom Harris

How did Xavi and Barcelona implode?

This was a huge night for Barcelona and their coach, a huge chance to make their first Champions League semi-final since 2018-19. Xavi had talked pre-game about how his team had to use their heads and make the most of the opportunity.

That looked far away when the coach was red-carded for furious protests midway through the second half — right in the middle of the period when his team were self-destructing and throwing away their chances of progress.

Xavi reacted in a completely exaggerated fashion to what was a pretty routine refereeing call, a foul given near…