Champions League: Barca all but out post PSG drubbing

It all went wrong for Barcelona on Tuesday night at Parc des Princes where they were thrashed 4-0 by Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of the Champions League last-16 match.

While Barcelona put up a dismal show, birthday boys Angel Di Maria and Edinson Cavani and Julian Draxler got their names on the scoresheet in a starry PSG night.

Throughout the game, Barcelona lacked purpose and zeal and that has put them in a spot of immense bother as like Luis Enrique mentioned, only a "heroic performance" can salvage Barcelona's changes.

With no away goal advantage, Barcelona will have to score at least five goals in the return leg at Camp Nou on March 8 and not let PSG score any — a mammoth task considering PSG's display at home.

PSG attacked Barcelona from the word go. Early in the 5th minute, Matuidi was at the receiving end of an exquisite through ball but it was Ter Stegen's proactive sweeping goalkeeping that saved Barcelona from early blushes.

But an inspired PSG rattled passed Barca defence creating innumerable chances. In the 11th minute, Rabiot ran over Barca's defence and released a perfect cross to Matuidi who stepped aside from Umtiti and struck the ball towards the goal only to force a brilliant right-hand stop from Stegen.

With Aleix Vidal out for the season, the right-back position in Barcelona is their weak spot and coach Emery had chalked out a perfect plan to disrupt Barca right there. Di Maria was constantly throwing himself at Roberto who was struggling to cope up with the energy of the game and Draxler was direct running through the right wing.

It was Draxler's run in the 17th minute that was wrongly contained by Umtiti outside the box, which gave PSG a free-kick at a delicious position. Di Maria made no mistake and curled a beauty into the top right corner to register his first goal of the night. Standing in the wall, Luiz Suarez seemed to have ducked the ball and that was exactly the point which let Di Maria's ball through.

Messi looked quite throughout and in reality, a below average player as he managed just 28 accurate passes throughout the game — two fewer than Stegen.

It was him who lost the ball to Rabiot in the middle of the pitch that led to PSG's second goal in the 40th minute. Rabiot passed off to Veratti who bossed the midfield — throughout his time on the pitch — and released Draxler on the right of the box. The German smashed the ball home making it to the scoresheet in his Champions League debut in PSG shirt.

Neymar was the only Barcelona player to put in a decent shift running over the left wing but he received absolutely no support from his teammates.

Soon in the second half, Di Maria found the back of the net yet again with a superb curling strike into the top left corner. As Kurzawa made a fabulous run on the left wing and then cut inside to find Di Maria, the ex-Real Madrid man beautifully cut past Alba to earn

his brace.

Barcelona never seemed to be in the game as Cavani completed their rout in the 71st minute when he lashed home a great ball in by Meunier.