Barcelona took a large advance on a seventh trip to the UEFA Champions League semifinals in eight years by beating Paris Saint-Germain 3-1 in France on Wednesday, courtesy of a lightning-quick Neymar goal on a counterattack and a splendid Luis Suarez brace.
After these teams split their group stage series, each winning their home game, much was expected of these quarterfinals, after PSG had outlasted Chelsea in the round of 16, where Barca ousted Manchester City fairly simply. But with a game yet to play, it’s all but over – unless something totally unheard of happens in Catalonia next week.
Barca started the game by being its usual dominant self from recent weeks – and years – and began forging chances. After a quarter of an hour, Suarez served Messi at the top of the box with a sharp cross, but the Argentine twirled his shot off the far post.
Not long thereafter, the often anonymous but ever-indispensable Sergio Busquets won the ball along the sideline. He fed Andres Iniesta, who found Messi with a penetrating pass, and then the little maestro dispatched Neymar with a beautifully weighted through ball. The Brazilian coolly struck it behind Salvatore Sirigu to complete a counter that moved far too simply up the gut of the field.
In just the 21st minute, PSG had to make a substitution that would prove crucial. Thiago Silva, carrying an injury, couldn’t continue and was replaced by David Luiz, who also had a preexisting injury. It would take a while for this move to haunt PSG, which was also without the suspended Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Thiago Motta, but it would in a big way.
The Parisians, who hadn’t lost a European home game since November 2006 – to Hapoel Tel Avid, 33 matches ago – struggled to answer with any chances of their own. Once, right before the half hour mark, Javier Pastore found a wide-open Edinson Cavani, but the Uruguayan took a poor touch, allowing Javier Mascherano to interfere.
But in the second half, PSG finally made a fist. Pastore’s dipping shot after the break took a wicked bounce in front of Barcelona goalkeeper Marc-Andre Ter Stegen, who could only just parry it. When Iniesta had to come off with a back injury, it seemed like there would be more opportunities for PSG.
It continued to be a slow and ponderous game, which both sides seemed to be satisfied with. And it looked, for a time, like they would settle for the 1-0 Barca win. The hosts didn’t want to risk conceding more goals by attacking too aggressively, while the visitors seemed happy to skip town with the narrow victory.
Two flashes of brilliance by Suarez finally opened up the game though. In the 67th minute, he got the ball out wide and set off on a diagonal run towards goal. He first nutmegged Luiz, then cut behind Marquinhos and finally held off a third Brazilian defender in Maxwell before he smacked the ball past Sirigu at the near post to double the score.
The Parisians then woke up. Ter Stegen made a strong save on a Cavani shot that threatened to put the French on the board. And Barca manager Luis Enrique responded by inserting defender Jeremy Mathieu late on. With Mascherano sliding into midfield, Barcelona was playing with two anchor men from then on – a rarity.
But Suarez wasn’t done. In the 79th minute, Mascherano dispatched him into a cleared PSG backfield, where he nutmegged Luiz a second time and coolly deposited the finest finish you’ll ever see into the top corner to make it 3-0.
Three minutes later, Gregory van der Wiel’s volley was deflected behind Ter Stegen by Mathieu for the final 3-1 score. The Frenchman soon redeemed himself with an 89th-minute block on another Cavani shot in the box though, which might have changed this tie yet.
But it didn’t. And when the final whistle rang out and PSG’s home unbeaten streak – not to mention its European aspirations – had been slaughtered in brutal fashion, the body language of its players registered somewhere between stunned and resigned to inevitable elimination. As if the second leg has already been played.
Because, in a practical sense, it already has.
Leander Schaerlaeckens is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @LeanderAlphabet.
