3 Things We Learned: FC Barcelona vs PSG

Barcelona did the unimaginable. They managed to win 6-1, and win 6-5 on aggregate, to go through to the quarter-finals against all odds.

Digging Deep

This match showed the reserves of the team. They were tested to the very limit, but they pulled through. A great first half as well as an excellent start to the second half meant that Barcelona were 3-0 up after fifty minutes. By this point, it looked a matter of time before Barcelona would score another two to comfortably win the match. However, it wasn’t that simple.

Edinson Cavani looked like he had ruined the party with a goal in the sixty-second minute, which gave the Parisians a vital away goal. It deflated the atmosphere completely, and the Barcelona players started to become impatient. This was an even greater test than the challenge they faced at the start of the match. It took until the eighty-eighth minute before they started to mount a second comeback with Neymar’s exquisite free-kick, and from that the magic happened.

Overall, it was an excellent performance. Everyone contributed to the result in some way. Granted, some players weren’t great with Rafinha being poor with the ball considering how many times he had it in promising situations. However, he still produced the cross, which led to the first goal, by Luis Suárez, thanks to some nervy defending.

Collectively, they pressed well, and managed to keep PSG around their own box for the majority of the match. The Barcelona defenders spent more of the match in the oppositions half than their own, which reinforces their dominance. In the centre of the pitch: Sergio Busquets, Javier Mascherano and Ivan Rakitić were brilliant because they were constantly hounding any PSG player who had the ball, and then recycled the ball efficiently to the creative players.

It was a magical performance, which will be remembered for a long, long time. They go in to the record books due to being the first team to come back from a four goal deficit in the history of the Champions League. Luis Enrique deserves credit for using such a bold tactic in a key game.

Neymar

Most fans watching, me included, may have lost hope, but Neymar hadn’t. He grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck, with his sheer-minded determination not to lose. In seven amazing minutes, he completely changed both teams seasons as well as the emotions of millions. Firstly, he scored a sublime free-kick on the edge of the box, to the right side of the goal, which curled into the top corner.

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He then stepped up to score the penalty, which Luis Suárez had won in the ninety-first minute. He calmly slotted the ball into the goalkeepers left corner after Kevin Trapp had dived the wrong way. To top it all off, Neymar picked the ball up about twenty-five yards out after his free-kick had been cleared. He then proceeded to chop the ball on to his left foot before chipping a perfect ball in to the box, which Sergi Roberto got on the end of to score in the ninety-fifth minute, and win the tie.

The Brazilian was excellent throughout the match, and was the only player to do anything positive in the first leg. However, the last ten minutes reaffirmed his status as a world-class player as well as one of the best in the world. He seems to thrive in big matches, and this match supports that. We are used to Lionel Messi stepping up in these matches, but Neymar proved he can do it just as well.

Referee

The referee, Deniz Aytekin, had a poor game. PSG fans may argue that he cost them the game due to not giving them a penalty after Ángel Di María was taken out by Javier Mascherano. Nonetheless, his poor decision-making helped them more than it did Barça. For the majority of the second half, he seemed to be unwilling to book the PSG players. They committed multiple fouls with Thomas Meunier being a chief culprit. Arguably, he should have sent off Marco Verratti, in the last few minutes, due to his repeated fouls, but by that point it didn’t matter.

He wasn’t going to give the first penalty until one of the third officials changed his mind. Also, there were other potential penalties, and plenty of fouls which weren’t punished. He could have potentially sent off Marquinhos after he conceded the second penalty, but instead he opted for a yellow. It is a shame that his poor officiating had an effect on the match, but thankfully it didn’t stop Barcelona from winning.