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Paris Saint-Germain dominated most of the game against Real Madrid in the opening leg of the Champions League Round of 16 tie and seemed to get rewarded when Dani Carvajal committed a penalty on Kylian Mbappe. Lionel Messi stepped up to take the spot kick but was denied by Real Madrid keeper Thibaut Courtois to keep the score 0-0. Take a look.
Penalty Missed Lionel Messi pic.twitter.com/HeJsasF6vz
— GOALLLLL (@GOALLLLL6) February 15, 2022
The Parisian club had been constantly peppering Real Madrid’s goal, but Courtois was up to the task each time. He previously stopped shots from Mbappe and Messi, who have dominated Real Madrid’s back line. None of this domination will matter if the Spanish club doesn’t concede a goal in this first leg. The away goal rule is no longer in play, so Real Madrid has a huge incentive to make this a winner-take-all showdown at home rather than go forward on the road against a PSG side capable of breaking on the counterattack.
We’ll see if Messi’s miss comes back to haunt PSG in this game and later down the line.