Borussia Dortmund secured their first berth in the Champions League final for over a decade as Mats Hummels netted the only goal to take the Germans past an extraordinarily profligate Paris Saint-Germain.
PSG missed over 25 shots, hitting the woodwork on four occasions as they tried everything they could to find their first goal in a tie that ended with Dortmund 2-0 winners on aggregate. The French champions' wait for a first Champions League title goes on and next season it is likely they will have to pursue glory without Kylian Mbappe, one of a host of forwards who spurned chances against Dortmund throughout the tie.
Having marshalled an impressive defensive effort in the first half, one that limited PSG to a handful of low value shots, Hummels rose to meet Julian Brandt's corner with a thundering header Gianluigi Donnarumma couldn't get close to.
Seconds earlier PSG could have drawn level on aggregate, Warren Zaire-Emery contriving to hit the post from close range after Goncalo Ramos had miscued Kylian Mbappe's deflected cross. It just seemed that the hosts luck was not in tonight. Nuno Mendes smashed a perfectly struck effort against the same bit of woodwork. Ousmane Dembele baited a foul out of Hummels that referee Daniele Orsato initially thought was a penalty only to correctly conclude the foul had taken place just outside the box.
Mbappe was denied a penalty in the dying minutes as PSG took ever more desperate swings, building a huge number of shots without ever seeming to believe that they might overcome the two goal deficit.
Dortmund will now play in their first Champions League final in 11 years, returning to Wembley in the hopes of going one better than their defeat to Bayern Munich. They could well face their compatriots in north west London with Thomas Tuchel's side facing Real Madrid on Wednesday night, level at 2-2 after the first leg.
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PSG keep hitting it again and again and again. We're now past 25 shots, over three xG and still nothing in the net. This is historic missing from PSG.
Marquinhos flicks wide from a free kick, he might have been offside anyway. Mbappe draws a save from Kobel but it might have been going wide anyway. PSG are doing a bit but nowhere near enough.
It was never going to count but you wish it had. Schlotterbeck and I think Fullkrug cause chaos at another Dortmund corner and Hummels shows flexibility far beyond a 35 year old, hooking his right boot to guide the ball past Donnarumma. He's about three yards offside. More's the pity, that might have been one of the goals of the tournament for sheer inventiveness from a veteran center back.
Sabitzer scrambles back to quell a counter, moving with real composure given the yellow card hanging over him. That really typifies what has been a team effort defensively, one where everyone has done a shift. Before exiting the game Sancho, full of effort if not instincts, had more ball recoveries than anyone on the pitch. Marco Reus, who has entered the fray, is in constant communication with Maatsen when the attack comes down the PSG left. Dortmund are not buckling. Not much is coming PSG's way.
Dortmund are doing their fans proud by getting as many yellow jerseys in and around the ball as possible at all times. Each time PSG think that they are about to break free, another BVB player arrives. Tough going for the hosts right now and they badly need to goal to have any hope of turning it around.
When it's not your day it's just not your day. A great shot feint by Dembele draws a clumsy foul by Hummels. Most of his body is in his own penalty area and Daniele Orsato initially thinks it's a penalty but points for a free kick instead. VAR says he's right by millimetres. Substitute Asensio takes the free kick... into the wall.
A hard miss there for Ramos, who gets a pass just behind him after a driving run by Vitinha. Maybe Ramos could have taken a touch and looked to lay it off but there's only half an hour to go, it's perhaps no wonder that nerves are getting to this young team. Indeed before that opening you might have said Dortmund looked the more likely to score the next goal, Fullkrug leading a dangerous counter where a pass to Sancho might have cut PSG open.
Now they're starting to hope and moments after Ramos' miss a long range strike by Mendes slaps the post. Can is making a crucial header to get rid of an Mbappe cross. The pressure is building on the other yellow wall.
Just moments after Zaire-Emery's chance to open the scoring, Dortmund take the lead. It is not silencing the home fans, but the away contingent has gone up a notch or two. Feels like a potentially killer goal unless PSG can hit back quickly with one of their own. They need two without reply just to force extra time. A tough task made tougher by that Zaire-Emery miss.
A brilliant goal from the best player in the tournament this season. He drifts slightly off Beraldo to meet Brandt's corner, heading low and firmly towards goal. Donnarumma doesn't have a chance.
Third time is very much not the charm as PSG hit the post yet again in this tie. Mbappe delivers a brilliant cross that flicks off Sabitzer. Ramos gets a weird boot on, hooking the ball right to the back stick. He should do better but so should Zaire-Emery, who from two or three yards out sidefoots the ball against the post. He had to score there.
Gosh, that was very quick, wasn't it? Or did I just get sidetracked doing the washing up? Anyway we're up and running for what might be the final 45 minutes of European football that Mbappe plays at the Parc des Princes. It will be if PSG don't perform better, particularly the other 10 players because Dortmund are going to send two or three bodies at Mbappe every time he gets the ball.
A slightly nervy moment late in the half when Fabian Ruiz's sweetly struck effort cannons off Schlotterbeck's knee and out for a corner. It would have been so cruel if that had ended in an own goal because he and Hummels have been simply sensational in this half, much as they have been throughout the campaign so far. Right now it doesn't look like it's over yet. PSG have work to do if they're going to take this tie to extra time, let alone win it.
The best chance of the half... and it falls to Dortmund seconds after PSG are probing in the Dortmund box. Hummels gets a big touch on the ball when Fabian Ruiz cuts back to Mbappe and the visitors are flying forward. No one is catching Adeyemi but he does drift a little too wide. He hits a low shot towards goal but Donnarumma gets down quickly enough to get a strong glove on the ball.
Emre Can is knocked off the ball in midfield and PSG are flying. Mbappe gets the ball at pace, just as he wants, but Dortmund scramble enough bodies back that even when the No.7 beats three of them they have numbers. Beraldo moves it on to Dembele, who is perhaps guilty of letting the ball run a little too far towards the byline before blazing over.
Although they have had a few sights of goal so far, the PSG faithful would have probably rather seen more action towards Dortmund's goal. In fact, the major action seen so far featuring Gregor Kobel has been BVB's time wasting tactics when taking goal kicks which is very Emi Martinez-esque and predictable provokes irate reactions each time. Parc des Princes continues to generate some sensational noise but fans cannot win you games -- goals do. Les Parisiens need to start providing one or two of those to do justice to their home support.
Through the first quarter of this match PSG have had 51 percent possession to Dortmund's 49. Both sides have had three shots. Those shots have been worth 0.14 xG to each team. That'll do Dortmund quite nicely.
As Dortmund enjoy something of a brighter start, Sancho gets himself one on one with Mendes and goes right at him. The left back stands firm, however, and his opponent overruns the ball. Mendes doesn't just emerge with the ball, he plays a searing ball over the top that Kobel has to get out quickly to deal with. Still PSG will be concerned that the ball is coming at them a little too frequently, just after that dribble that wasn't Fullkrug backs his man down and tees up Ryerson to thud an effort into the sidenetting.
Hakimi is looking dangerous early on, determined to take on Adeyemi and show he can win the foot race. He gives the ball to Dembele, who forces a corner that Dortmund clear without fully dealing with. Instead the ball comes back into the box, eventually dropping to Mbappe, whose skittering volley is a little too close to Kobel, a goalkeeper who can make far more challenging saves than that.
This is the level PSG need to hold though and they aren't so far, Fabian Ruiz giving the ball straight to Dortmund in his own half. There's no breakaway option for the men in yellow and black but they do just get a few minutes to control the ball and territory. That'll do them nicely. PSG need to turn "a bit of early pressure" into something more lasting as this contest wears on.
Away we go and Dortmund soon have the ball, Mendes forced into conceding a throw in as the visitors look to probe the right flank as they did so effectively in the first leg. They win an early free kick that Brandt stands over in that dangerous wide channel. Maatsen goes to join him and he's the one who ultimately delivers, a tame header easily held by Donnarumma.
Kick off is just moments away as the players gather in the Parc des Princes tunnel. The ground is bouncing -- I wonder if that is quite literally the case in the Dortmund away end -- and the atmosphere is electric. This is going to be cracking.
Interesting that PSG were extremely late to warm up and have now stayed out to enjoy this incredible atmosphere while the Dortmund players have now gone inside to prepare for the game to get underway. The visiting BVB fans are doing their best to generate a bit of noise to rival the Paris fans but the home din is pretty thick right now. Ramos seems especially pumped up and has nailed almost 100% of his shots in the warm-up which does not always guarantee success at the first time of asking once the game gets started. Almost time to get going here, so get yourselves comfortable -- we could be in for a pretty fast start.
This is meeting number eight between these two clubs in European competition. Three of those have ended in draws. The winners in the other four? The home team every time. Given the racket PSG fans are making right now, you have to fancy the home team to deliver that little bit extra today.
If anyone knows what it's like being a goalscorer who tends to drift wide to the left, it's our own Thierry Henry. Here he explains why Mbappe is so much more at ease on the flanks than he is through the middle:
There is a superb atmosphere building ahead of this one at Parc des Princes. PSG's fans are know for making themselves heard and they are doing that so far and then some. Dortmund have been afforded a hot reception and the home players have not even emerged to warm up yet and it is 30 minutes until kick-off. This is shaping up to be sensational off the field, but the big question is whether it can live up to the atmosphere on it. We will find out in about 30 minutes or so. Fan favorite Javier Pastore is back at Parc des Princes receiving a rousing ovation and AC/DC's Thunderstruck is now pumping the collective juices up to something close to fever pitch as the players emerge to warm up.
If the great Michael Irvin had something to say to Borussia Dortmund it might just be "listen to everybody, nobody believes in you, what are you prepared to do about it?" None of our expert panel are backing Dortmund tonight, not even to take this to penalties.
Well probably not to the same level he showed six days ago, when the Manchester United loanee ripped Paris Saint-Germain to shreds, completing 13 dribbles at the sort of success rate you simply do not see in high level European competition.
Nuno Mendes in particular looked like he was suffering the most agonising evening of his professional career, Sancho coming at him again and again, never predictable in how he'd attack. As I wrote after the game "PSG had no way of stopping him. You haven't seen a defense mesmerized like this since, well, since Jalen Brunson cooked the Sixers.
"Bounding and astounding, the boy from Camberwell was totally unreadable for defenders. Much like Brunson, Sancho doesn't need to beat you by pushing the ball forward and outsprinting you. Why do that when he has everything needed in his bag to leave you a jibbering wreck instead, trapped with the certainty that you have no idea if he is going left, right, at you, or away?"
There had been suggestions in the build up that the PSG boss might be tempted to shuffle his deck and the logic to putting Goncalo Ramos in the XI is persuasive. Having a true center forward should allow Mbappe to drift to the left, where he is so deadly (sidenote: how exactly does he expect to coexist with Vinicius Junior should he join Real Madrid as expected?). Meanwhile Lucas Hernandez's absence could well be keenly felt with Beraldo having the sorts of ups and downs you'd expect from a new addition to Les Parisiens.
No changes at all from Edin Terzic to the XI that performed so impressively at the Westfalenstadion. That means plenty of firepower off the bench too in Marco Reus, Sebastian Haller and Donyell Malen. Perhaps the most notable presence among the subs, however, is Kjell Watjen, who has gone from his exams this morning to a Champions League semifinal.
PSG XI: Donnarumma; Hakimi, Marquinhos, Beraldo, Nuno Mendes; Fabian Ruiz, Zaire-Emery, Vitinha; Dembele, Goncalo Ramos, Mbappe
Subs: Navas, Tenas, Ugarte, Asensio, Danilo, Lee, Kolo Muani, Mukiele, Soler, Barcola, Skriniar, Zague
Dortmund XI: Kobel; Ryerson, Hummels, Schlotterbeck, Maatsen; Sabitzer, Emre Can; Sancho, Brandt, Adeyemi; Fullkrug
Subs: Meyer, Lotka, Ozcan, Nmecha, Haller, Reus, Wolf, Moukoko, Malen, Sule, Watjen, Bynoe-Gittens
