Well, drama was certainly not in short supply during the Champions League quarterfinals last week in Lisbon. Barcelona’s historic capitulation vs. Bayern Munich drew the most headlines, but for eighty-nine minutes Wednesday night, it looked like the first tie between PSG and Atalanta would be the story of the round. Atalanta’s Cinderella run in the Champions League took a dark turn in February when a magical night at the San Siro vs Valencia likely helped the novel coronavirus consume the city of Bergamo. Before and after football resumed in Italy, however, the team helped the epicenter of the country’s outbreak heal. Another heartwarming chapter in this twisted fairy tale was practically written, but instead, the story of Atalanta’s season came to a brutal conclusion.
Today in the Observer, I reflect on both Atalanta’s heartbreak and, in the words of legendary commentator Peter Drury, “Parisian salvation” in the form of two very late goals from a converted center-back and a former flop at Stoke City: https://ndsmcobserver.com/2020/08/mckenna-atalanta-vs-psg-a-reflection-on-a-brutal-end-to-a-twisted-cinderella-story/
