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It was another magical night in the greatest club competition in the world — the UEFA Champions League. Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi and Paris Saint-Germain were cruising early in the second half in their round of 16 second leg, up 2-0 on aggregate at Real Madrid, and looking like a lock to advance to the quarterfinals. There was no way PSG would give up two goals and allow extra time, right?
PSG didn’t allow two. They allowed three! A magnificent hat trick from Karim Benzema, one that earned him a perfect rating of 10 in our player ratings, secured a shocking comeback via a 3-1 win over PSG. It was an absolutely stunning comeback considering Carlo Ancelotti’s side was not all that threatening before the goals arrived, and it did absolutely nothing in the first leg as it almost seemed to purposely retreat in effort to decide the tie at the Bernabeu.
But Benzema became the oldest player to secure a Champions League hat trick as he scored all three in less than 20 minutes to boot a team whose season is now a failure no matter what happens moving forward. PSG are measured simply by European success that continues to elude them.
Looking back through the years of this historic competition, where does Wednesday’s this jaw-dropping second-half comeback (or collapse, depending on your rooting interest) rank? Here’s my top five:
5. Deportivo 4, AC Milan 0 (2003-04 quarters)
An absolutely shocking turn of events. AC Milan crushed Deportivo La Coruna 4-1 in the first leg, and there was no way a team featuring the likes of Dida, Cafu, Paolo Maldini, Andriy Shevchenko and arguably the world’s top young talent Kaka, were going to blow this. Now, Deportivo were no pushovers, featuring top talents like Juan Carlos Valeron and Alberto Luque, but Milan were the defending champs and got absolutely obliterated, losing the second leg 4-0 and crashing out 5-4 on aggregate. This was one of those…
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Source : cbssports
