Nice win on penalties and knock favourites PSG out of the cup. Although the visitors were the worse team over the 90 minutes, the Parisians did not know what to do with the clear plus in playing shares. The defending champions are out of the tournament.
In an uneventful first half, the same thing happened over and over again: The home side from Paris pushed the ball back and forth in their own ranks, but found no solutions against a disciplined Nice eleven. The visitors seemed content with a 0-0 draw and made no real attempt to get active offensively.
Paris without ideas
The best chances of the first 45 minutes were missed by Verratti (23.) and Draxler (31.), but both shots were comparatively harmless. Thus, the low-level match went into the break with a 0:0 score.
After the break, little changed in the course of the game: Paris continued to dominate, but remained largely harmless. The best chance for Pochettino’s team came from Verratti, who just missed the goal from 15 metres (68th). On the other side, Kluivert had the lead twice, but was always interfered with in the last second (48th, 85th).
Mbappé misses the winning goal
For much of the second half, the game was played out in midfield, with neither team creating any scoring chances worth mentioning. The only highlight was the substitution of Kylian Mbappé, who made his 200th competitive appearance for the Parisians. The striker almost scored the winner in the final phase, but his shot from an acute angle just grazed the crossbar (90.+2). The score was still 0-0 after 90 minutes, and the game went straight into a penalty shoot-out.
Draxler shakes it in – Dante cheeky – Bulka makes a decisive save
After Schneiderlin, Messi, Todibo, Mbappé and Atal converted confidently, it was Paredes who made the first mistake. Immediately afterwards, however, Delort missed the lead for Nice, Donnarumma parrying into the right corner.
The following shooters scored without too many problems, even if Draxler’s loose shot was a bit lucky. Ex-Bundesliga defender Dante even converted with a cheeky lob. Finally, it was Bulka who decided the game: Nice’s keeper scrambled Simons’ shot out of the right-hand corner, securing his team’s place in the quarter-finals and spoiling not only Mbappé’s jubilee game but PSG’s title defence.
