Neymar​ has called on his memories from his time at Barcelona which saw them dump Paris Saint-Germain out of the Champions League at this stage last season in hope of emulating such feats when his side tackle Real Madrid in their return leg next month. 

A Cristiano Ronaldo brace and Marcelo volley counteracted Adrien Rabiot’s opener to hand the reigning champions a two-goal buffer ahead of the second-leg at the Parc des Princes on March 6, however, the Brazil international has experience of overcoming adversity at this stage of the competition. 

12 months ago, the 26-year-old played a pivotal role in Blaugrana’s inconceivable comeback, which saw them overturn a 4-0 deficit from the first-leg to scrape through to the quarter-finals via a famous 6-1 win over Unai Emery’s outfit, and despite the world’s most expensive player recognising Los Blancos’ advantage will be a task to overhaul, he has refused to admit defeat. 

“I think it’s difficult, but nothing is impossible”, Neymar told ​Globo Esporte following PSG’s 3-1 defeat. 

“Last year I was in a much worse situation and got through. I hope I can perform better and that we can do it.”

On the whole, Paris were arguably the better side on Wednesday evening, in what was a high-tempo, chance-swelled contest, however the France capital star admitted his side once again did not possess the “maturity” to tackle the grandest stage. 

“I think made mistakes in a few moments”, Neymar added. “We did not have the maturity to play in the latter stages of the second half. 

“I think we have to sort things out. We did not play a badly, but we have to improve if we want to get past Real Madrid.”


” data-viewability=”https://www.riddle.com/a/142053″>