Barcelona v Paris Saint Germain in 300 words

It was definitely a case of ‘job well done’ for Barcelona as they stroll into the semis through a first half brace from Neymar.

Barcelona dominated the opening stages of the match courtesy of quick passing and disciplined pressing when PSG had the ball in their own half. They were duly rewarded for their efforts with the first goal on the night when captain, Andres Iniesta embarked on a mazy run beating three straggling defenders before releasing Neymar who scored with a high degree of finesse.

Iniesta was pulling all the strings in Catalonia, as if the ball was a magnet at his feet, while the influential Ibrahimovic for PSG was barely mentioned. The second goal came just after the half hour mark, and it was only a matter of time before the third arrived.

In the second half, it was probably to be expected that it would be a non-event, and that is exactly what the first 15 minutes were. A good chance fell to the Parisians through Verratti, but his shot skewed wide.

Javier Pastore never got into the game and the Argentinian was a main factor in why the Parisians were never able to maintain a solid spell of possession. He misplaced 15 passes and a poorly timed pass that would have played Cavani through, typified his and his team’s performance.

For Barcelona, the second half could be described as a ‘professional job’ but they took their foot off the gas and lost all accuracy when Iniesta was replaced at half time. Messi had a chance to overtake Ronaldo in the goal-scoring charts on the stroke of full time but his shot sailed just wide.

Barcelona smothered PSG in midfield and walk into the semi-finals for the 8^th time in the last ten years.

Man of the Match

My man of the match has to be Andres Iniesta. For 45 minutes he patrolled the midfield, orchestrating, and created the opening goal of the night. Notable mentions also have to go to Javier Mascherano and Sergio Busquets.