MADRID: Lionel Messi stood frozen, stunned in the Santiago Bernabeu.

His right hand was on his hip. His left hand was holding his head. His eyes were closed.

It looked like he wanted the field to swallow him up.

Watching the celebrations was the last thing Messi wanted to do as Paris St Germain capitulated to Real Madrid.

Especially given the way Karim Ben­zema had just completed a hat-trick in 17 minutes to shift the Champions League last-16 game in Real’s favour for the first time.

Almost exactly five years to the day since PSG were hit for six and humiliated in Barcelona, it was more pain in Spain for the French champions as they self-destructed again in the Champions League knockout stages.

Approaching the hour mark of the return leg against Real, PSG looked primed to reach the quarter finals, leading 1-0 on the night and 2-0 on aggregate.

Somehow, in a manner only PSG seem able to contrive to do, the star-studded visitors imploded - a capitulation of their own making — losing 3-1 on the night to crash out.

“Real Madrid is alive and we showed how we can win against anyone,” Benzema told reporters. “The comeback came due to a matter of mental strength. I’m really honoured to be part of this legendary club and now we move forward.”

Even by PSG’s standards, this was an epic collapse. They have now been eliminated from four of their nine Champions League knockout ties when winning from the first leg, three of those coming in the previous six seasons.

The 6-1 defeat to Barca in the Camp Nou on March 8, 2017 where the Catalans overturned a 4-0 last-16 first-leg deficit was their nadir.

Messi and Neymar were in Barca colours that day, but both were on the receiving end this time, unable to rid PSG of their habit of crumbling when it matters most.

Real’s comeback may not have matched that night in Barcelona for scale or drama — Benzema’s winner came in the 78th minute not the 95th and Real came from two behind, not four — but the impact might be greater.

In the year of the controversial World Cup in Qatar, Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe were stitched together with limitless resources from the oil-rich Gulf state to win the Champions League, not crash out in the last 16.

Defeat throws Mauricio Pochettino’s future as coach into serious doubt, raises further questions about Messi’s departure from Barca and prolongs the Qatari-owned club’s wait for that elusive European crown, despite more than a billion euros splurged on transfers.

“We made some mistakes, we can’t say we didn’t. The worst feeling is that we were the better side,” Pochettino told Canal+. “The next few weeks are not going to be easy.”

Whichever managers come and go, PSG too often look like a group of players masquerading as a team.

All the money and talent can’t achieve success where it is craved most. This was meant to be the season when everything came together, with Messi arriving.

But still only one European final has been reached, losing to Bayern Munich in 2020. Only one other semi-final has been contested, losing to Manchester City last season.

No wonder there were reports of PSG President Nasser Al-Khelaifi becoming heated in the search to blame the match officials after the latest exit.

There will be recriminations at PSG.

Mbappe took a step closer to leaving. The 23-year-old, out of contract in the summer, was at his scintillating best at his prospective new Santiago Bernabeu home, where the Real fans applauded his name.

Mbappe’s sales pitch, if he needed one, was perfect — scoring one stunning goal that was ruled out before making one count to give PSG the lead. He showed why he is regarded as the best player in the world at the moment, while Real in return confirmed they are a more serious European title-winning prospect than PSG.

When Zinedine Zidane led Real to Champions League victory in 2018, they enjoyed a run of similar great escapes in the knock-out stage, and few believed they could win the trophy then either.

Doubts linger around Carlo Ancelotti’s side at the very highest level. For the entirety of the first leg in Paris and for 60 minutes of the second, Real were inferior to PSG, who made them look slow, heavy-legged and like a team whose core are in their mid-thirties.

It is possible the likes of Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea or Bayern Munich would do the same, but without the late capitulation.

And yet this is not the first time Madrid have proven themselves to be great survivors on the European stage. Through experience, belief and sheer force of will, Real always tend to go further than they should.

“We have suffered a lot, but we have endured. After [our] first goal there was only one team on the pitch,” said Ancelotti.

In Benzema, they have one of the world’s classiest strikers, an all-rounder getting better with age who sent a message that he wants to play with, not instead of, his fellow Frenchman Mbappe if he arrives in Madrid.

At the age of 34 years and 80 days, Benzema became the oldest player to score a hat-trick in the Champions League.

A bad error from PSG keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma — the Italy international mishandled the ball inside the area — gifted Benzema the first goal that launched the comeback in the 61st minute.

Luka Modric then found Benzema completely free inside the box behind a distracted defense and he had time to look up and pick his spot.

Just 106 seconds later and with PSG in full panic mode, defender Marquinhos gifted the ball to Benzema on the edge of the box and he flicked the ball into the bottom corner to seal a 3-2 aggregate victory for Real.

Real, though, still lack the mobility and dynamism of Bayern and the Premier League’s leading lights. Saving up for Mbappe for the last three years has seen to that.

And while Ancelotti is an expert man manager, he is not a visionary coach in the mould of Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp or Julian Nagelsmann, all of whom are currently at the forefront of the game’s tactical thinking.

Yet Real remain alive. They came back to beat PSG with the old instincts kicking in and the fans singing at the end:“This is how we win.” It was hard to disagree.

CITY SAIL THROUGH

In the other last-16 match on Wednesday, Guardiola’s City advanced past Sporting Lisbon 5-0 on aggregate after a scoreless draw in Manchester.

This season, the Premier League leaders are hoping to make the Champions League final for a second straight time as they look to win the European Cup for the first time and Guardiola looks to win the only major trophy that has eluded him during his time at City.

“Every year when we qualify for the Champions League I celebrate it that night because I know how difficult it is,” Guardiola said. “When you qualify for last 16, I celebrate it. Now it’s time to congratulate everyone, focus on the Premier League and see who we get in the draw.”

Published in Dawn, March 11th, 2022