Paris Saint-Germain's Champions League nightmare: PSG's 12 times failed in Europe since taking over Qatar

Home / News / Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League nightmare: PSG’s 12 times they have failed in Europe since taking over Qatar

After twelve seasons, seven coaches and almost 2,000 million euros spent, Paris Saint-Germain continues to hope to win, despite everything, the Champions League with its Qatari owners.

The French champions’ last failed attempt came against Borussia Dortmund in the semi-finals, and Luis Enrique’s men are widely considered favourites heading into the draw.

We take a look at all the moments when PSG failed to win the European Championship title.

Carlo Ancelotti took note of a new PSG team consisting of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thiago Silva and David Beckham and looked ready to take the festival by storm.

After narrowly beating Valencia 3-2 in two games in the round of 16, they drew 3-3 with Barcelona on aggregate in the quarterfinals, and Lionel Messi and company advanced to goals away from home thanks to a Xavi penalty.

With Laurent Blanc replacing Ancelotti, they looked even better after eliminating Bayer Leverkusen 6-1 in the round of 16.

But the Parisians will suffer more away goal angst as their run ends once in the round of 16.

This time he faced Chelsea, as Demba Ba’s goal in the 87th minute sealed the Blues’ 2-0 win at Stamford Bridge and gave them the through.

The Ligue 1 side got their revenge against the West Londoners a year later, winning in extra time thanks to goals from David Luiz and Thiago Silva at Stamford Bridge.

But once again they were eliminated by Barcelona in the quarter-finals with a masterclass from Luis Suarez that inspired the eventual champions to a 6-1 defeat.

– UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) 15 April 2024

PSG’s quarter-final whim continued in 2015-2016, and it was Manchester City’s turn to deliver the fatal blow.

They had once beaten Chelsea in the first knockout round, but Manuel Pellegrini’s Citizens were too strong for them, and Kevin de Bruyne scored the winner in the second leg after a 2-2 draw at the Parc des Princes.

The 2016-17 exit is perhaps the one that haunts PSG the most after being on the wrong side of one of the Champions League’s most common comebacks.

Unai Emery’s men were in pole position to reach the quarter-finals after beating Barcelona 4-0 in the first leg.

But a sensational 6-1 defeat at the Camp Nou, sealed thanks to Sergi Roberto’s winning goal, left the Parisians stunned.

His goal sealed one of the biggest comebacks in Champions League history as Barcelona beat PSG 6-1 ?

Goose bumps. pic. twitter. com/1SEAMZMjcS

– Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) February 7, 2019

The following summer, PSG officials shelled out a world-record €222 million for Brazilian star Neymar, the guy who had encouraged Barca’s memorable comeback.

But having the 2015 Champions League winner in their ranks wasn’t enough, as they fell comfortably in the round of 16 via Real Madrid.

Two defeats in the round of 16 were enough for Emery to lose his place, but substitute Thomas Tuchel was unable to match his record in his first season.

And once again, it’s a return to the second leg that proved their undoing, with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Manchester United winning thanks to Marcus Rashford’s penalty in the French capital.

The 2019-20 campaign remains PSG’s closest to football’s most sensible prize after narrowly losing 1-0 to Bayern Munich in the final.

To add insult to injury, in the final behind closed doors in Lisbon, it was one of his academy pupils who did the damage when a header from Kingsley Coman won a sixth title for the German giants.

– UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) 27 August 2020

Mauricio Pochettino has established himself as the man who will finally deliver in his first task since leaving Tottenham, whom he led to the final two years earlier.

But despite doing better than most, the Argentine side came up short in the semi-finals against Pep Guardiola’s Man City, who were eventually beaten by Tuchel’s former manager Chelsea in the final.

In a season that marked 10 years of Nasser Al-Khelaifi’s involvement, the Qatari coach doubled down on his strategy of building a team of superstars by bringing Lionel Messi to the club.

But even having the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner at the top of his line didn’t give him the prize he was looking for, as Karim Benzema’s hat-trick spurred Real Madrid to victory in the round of 16.

– UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) 9 March 2023

Messi’s moment and final season in Paris arguably culminated in their worst performance to date, as they were eliminated in the round of 16 by scoring a goal.

He once supported Bayern, who had the edge over their inferior opponents, winning 1-0 in Paris before winning 2-0 at the Allianz Arena.

The script was written for Kylian Mbappe to finally lead PSG to Champions League glory in his final season with the club after impressively eliminating Barcelona in quarter-finals.

But a determined display from Dortmund prevented their favourite rivals from scoring in the equaliser, despite 44 attempts from Mbappe and company in the two matches.

Niclas Fullkrug and Mats Hummels scored in each and every game to cause pain for the twelfth consecutive season and leave PSG with even more questions about how to finally conquer Europe.

The ball just goes through ? pic. twitter. com/viAgJovrXh

– Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) May 7, 2024

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