Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain met up for the third time this season and in the UEFA Champions League on Wednesday night for the first leg of the quarterfinals. Although Barcelona had trouble the first time they met, they were able to conquer PSG the second time they met in the group stage. The same thing happened Wednesday night as Barcelona beat PSG 3-1 in the first leg.
Neymar Jr. and Luis Suarez contributed greatly to the Catalan team as both players were able to get the ball behind the net. Neymar was assisted by Lionel Messi early in the first half and Suarez nutmegged David Luiz both times before finding the net. Gregory Van Der Weil was able to put one back behind Marc Andre Ter-Stergen when the ball ricochet of Jeremy Mathieu’s leg in the penalty area. With two goals up from PSG, Barcelona looks to keep the competition alive in the second leg to be able to advance to the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League.
Paris Saint-Germain were missing the presence of star striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic as he was suspended in the Round of 16 match against Chelsea earlier in March. Thiago Silva had to be replaced in the second half when he came off a thigh injury in the first half. The injury makes his presence doubtful for their meeting of the second leg of the UEFA Champions league next Wednesday night. As for Barcelona, Dani Alves was missing from the starting lineup as he accumulated too many yellow cards and was suspended for one match. Andres Iniesta was stretched out in the 53rd minute when he took a blow to his back and couldn’t continue anymore. His presence is also doubtful but coach Luis Enrique has a feeling he’ll be okay.
The action all started in the 18 minute when Iniesta recovered the ball back from bad ball control by Adrien Rabiot and found Messi in the middle of the field. It became a three on three breakaway where Messi found Neymar on his left hand side only to see Neymar take the ball and place it on his right foot to curve it past Salvatore Sirigu to make it 1-0.
Suarez was able to make it 2-0 in the 67th minute when he took on three defenders and all started with a beautiful nutmeg on David Luiz from outside the box. He then took on Marquinhos which he flunked to the left and got Maxwell off him as he then got it past Sirigu. The ball bounced of Sirigu’s gloves but was not enough to keep the ball from going into the net.
Suarez did it again in the 80 minute when a pass from Jordi Alba found Suarez in the middle of the field. Suarez then passed it to Javier Mascherano who gave it back to Suarez only to see Suarez go one on one against David Luiz and nutmeg him once again. That left him one on one against Sirigu but there was nothing Sirigu could do as he saw the ball go past him and into the top right hand corner of the goal.
Van Der Weil made it 3-1 and brought the score down to two when a clearance from Alba landed in front of Van Der Weil. Van Der Weil saw an opportunity to score and as he went for goal it seemed like Ter-Stergen would get it but instead the ball bounced of Mathieu and threw off Ter-Stergen as it went in as an own goal by Mathieu.
The game ended with a score of 3-1 and see Barcelona with a huge advantage going into the second leg of the quarterfinals held at the Camp Nou next Wednesday. Paris Saint-Germain hope to have Silva and Ibrahimovic back in the lineup but will have to score three goal or more goals to and not allow Barcelona to score at all in order to advance to the semifinals. As for Barcelona, they will have to score at least two more goal to feel confident and be able to advance to the semi-finals.
The man of the match goes out to Luis Suarez who was able to get two goals and make David Luiz look weak on the field as he nutmegged him twice. The second leg kicks off next Wednesday at the Camp Nou.
Photo by: Michel Euler/AP Images
