PSG survive Monaco scare to reach Champions League last 16

Paris Saint-Germain came from behind and then survived a late scare against 10-man Monaco, drawing 2-2 in the second leg of their Champions League knockout phase play-off tie on Wednesday (25 February) to reach the last 16 with a 5-4 aggregate victory.

The defending European champions recovered from two behind to win 3-2 in the principality in last week's first leg, a game in which Monaco had a man sent off early in the second half.

The scenario this time was similar, with French international Maghnes Akliouche giving Monaco a deserved interval lead on the night to level the scores overall.

However, the visitors had Mamadou Coulibaly sent off on 58 minutes, and that proved the catalyst for PSG to make it 1-1 through Marquinhos before Khvicha Kvaratskhelia seemed to have clinched the aggregate triumph.

Jordan Teze did make it 2-2 in stoppage time and Wout Faes then missed a great chance, but PSG held on to progress to the next round.

"Of course at the end when they scored and had that last chance it was stressful and we had a fright, but overall once again we reacted well to falling behind and played well collectively," PSG's Desire Doue told broadcaster Canal Plus.

Luis Enrique's team will now find out on Friday their potential opponents all the way to the final in Budapest, with Barcelona and Chelsea their possible rivals in the last 16.

Paris beat Barcelona 2-1 away during the league phase in October and have faced the Catalans in five knockout ties since 2013. They played Chelsea in the final of the Club World Cup last year, losing 3-0 -- their only blip in a remarkable campaign.

While PSG's dream of retaining the title remains alive, Monaco go out in the play-offs for the second season running.

"I am proud at the way we played over the two legs and overall in this European campaign," said Monaco coach Sebastien Pocognoli.

"I am proud of my players for making PSG doubt like that, but we are frustrated too at ending both games down to 10 men because we are left wondering how it would have turned out if we had kept 11 players on the pitch."

PSG were widely expected to get the better of their domestic rivals -- Monaco are currently eighth in Ligue 1, 20 points behind the leaders, although they did beat the Parisians in November.

The principality side had not won a Champions League knockout tie since their run to the semi-finals in 2017 with a side featuring a teenage Kylian Mbappe.

Red card changes game

Having been 2-0 up inside 18 minutes last week, Monaco really should have scored within 10 minutes here, but Coulibaly blazed over from an Akliouche cutback. They then came close again when a Folarin Balogun chip was tipped over by Matfei Safonov.

Bradley Barcola struck the bar for PSG -- who were missing the injured Ousmane Dembele -- but Monaco had been the better team and took a deserved lead just before half-time.

Caio Henrique's ball into the middle from the left found Coulibaly, and he laid it off for Akliouche to slot in.

The tie was now all square, but it swung back the way of the defending champions when Coulibaly was sent off just before the hour, leaving his team a man short like in the first leg when Aleksandr Golovin saw red.

Having been booked just a few minutes earlier for fouling Nuno Mendes, this time he was late into a challenge on Achraf Hakimi and a second yellow was produced by the Romanian referee.

PSG scored from the resulting free-kick, which was played short to Doue on the right and his low ball was turned in from close range by Marquinhos.

The momentum was now with PSG, and they went ahead on the night on 66 minutes as Hakimi's powerful strike was only parried by goalkeeper Philipp Koehn, allowing Kvaratskhelia to convert the loose ball.

Monaco still came within a whisker of forcing extra time -- substitute Teze turned in a deflected Simon Adingra centre in stoppage time to make it 2-2 and Faes very nearly scored another.