PSG Take a 3-2 Victory; Hand Barcelona Their First Loss

Champions League can only be described as one Word for me: competitive. 32 teams from all of Europe compete to become Europe’s greatest. Today we saw PSG face FC Barcelona. The Catalans came from winning 6 out of their 7 competitive matches, tying with Malaga two weeks ago and not allowing a goal thus far.

PSG faced injuries with Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Lavezzi both being out for the match and Ibra not being able to face his former team in which he helped own the LIGA, FIFA Club World Cup and the Spanish Supercopa while at the Nou Camp. With Ibra and Lavezzi out of the game, many believed that PSG would struggle against Barcelona but the results tell us otherwise. PSG is a team with great international players like Cavani, Verratti, David Luiz, Thiago Silva and many others. These four, along with the rest of the team, were able to come out on top of the GROUP F table with 4 points, along with Barca with 3 points.

PSG was able to hand Luis Enrique and his squad the first loss of the season with a 3-2 victory at the Parc des Princes. They also cut the spell of no goals for Barcelona as goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen allowed 3 goals. Enrique decided to go with the German goalkeeper, who had just come off of an injury, instead of going with Claudio Bravo who has been phenomenal and hasn’t allowed a goal thus far. We also saw him go with Jeremy Mathieu and Javier Mascherano while Gerard Pique, who has been in phenomenal form, saw the game from the bench.

It didn’t take more than 10 minutes for PSG to get in the scoreboard. Luca Moura’s free kick into the area was brought down by David Luiz near the penalty spot and with the defense struggling (Mascherano) and not being able to make a challenge, Luiz swiveled to fire a low left-footed shot past ter Stegen.

That was the first time Barcelona trailed in a game since April but it didn’t take more than 60 seconds for the Catalans to put in the equalizer. With a beautiful one-touch play or what we like to call the tiki taka play with Mascherano, Neymar, Iniesta and Messi all involved, it was Messi who was able to finish the play and get the goal pass Salvatore Sirigu.

In the 27^th minute, we saw Barcelona trailing 2-1 with a brilliant goal from Marco Veratti. Thiago Motta’s deep corner saw ter Stegen step off his line but the German couldn’t reach the ball and we Veratti get the ball pass Ivan Rakitiç and ter Stegen.

There was no immediate response from Barcelona this time and things only got worse for them in the second half as they conceded a third goal from midfielder Matuidi. Gregory van der Wiel had so much space down the right and his brilliant low cross was turned home first time at the far post by Matuidi and put up PSG 3-1 in the 54^th minute.

But not two minutes later it was Barcelona again who responded with a beautiful goal by Neymar. With Dani Alves handing the cross from the right side, Neymar was able to control the ball without it hitting the ground and the Brazilian side-footed a volley in off the far post to cut the lead to 3-2.

With hopes of Barcelona tying the game up, it wasn’t enough for the visitors as they couldn’t find that third goal with Iniesta and Sandro firing wide, Jordi Alba denied by a goal-saving block and 19 year-old Munir hit the post from 25 yards.

We didn’t see much effort from Marc-Andre as he allowed three goals that could have been saved but his defense also were vulnerable and didn’t fight hard enough for those 3 goals not to go in. The 3-2 defeat against PSG gave Barcelona their first competitive loss since April and they will have to go on and play Ajax twice and then APOEL and hope to get the 9 points to get on top of the group table, again.

Photo Credit: Getty Images