PSG shocks Atalanta in final minutes to reach Champions League semifinals

Aug. 12 (UPI) — Paris Saint-Germain scored a pair of late goals to earn a shocking 2-1 win over Atalanta on Wednesday at the Estadio da Luz in Lisbon, Portugal, and advance to the semifinals of the Champions League.

Marquinhos tied the game in the 90th minute before Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting delivered a stoppage-time winner to eliminate the Serie A club in the quarterfinals. Choupo-Moting’s goal — the latest regulation game-winning score in UCL quarterfinals history — put PSG into the semifinals for the first time since 1994-95.

“When I came on, I thought to myself, ‘We can’t lose, we can’t go home like that.’ I was confident in myself, confident in the team and then the rest is the history of Paris,” Choupo-Moting said. “It was a crazy game, a tough game and opponents.”

PSG came close to taking the lead inside five minutes when Neymar got behind the Atalanta defense, but his shot went wide of the goal.

Atalanta — who led Serie A with 98 goals in 38 league games this season — grabbed the lead in the 26th minute when Mario Pasalic curled a shot past PSG goalkeeper Keylor Navas.

Neymar had another scoring chance shortly after Pasalic’s goal, but he fired a shot just outside of the post. He then rifled another shot over the goal before halftime as Atalanta took a 1-0 lead into the locker room.

“I never thought we’d be back home tomorrow,” Neymar said. “At every moment, we just went for one thing: progress to the last four.”

With time running out, Marquinhos leveled the game after collecting a misfired shot from Neymar in the box and sending it past Atalanta goalkeeper Marco Sportiello. A few minutes later, Choupo-Moting finished off a perfect Kylian Mbappe pass to seal the come-from-behind victory.

“There is a great sense of regret. It seemed we were going to do it and that would have been a great achievement,” Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini said. “We still have [the memory of] a Champions League where we have grown as a team against some of the greats of Europe and I can’t do anything other than thank my lads.”

PSG will play either Atletico Madrid or RB Leipzig — who meet Thursday — in the semifinals.