Barcelona had a dreadful night as they suffered a 4-0 defeat against the hosts PSG. Angel De Maria scored two fabulous goals while Edinson Cavani scored once. Julian Draxler was the other goal scorer for PSG.
In the meeting of the 1st leg of UCL 2016/17 round of 16 at Parc des Princes (Paris), hosts PSG beat the visitors Barcelona 4-0. Birthday boys Angel De Maria (18’ and 55’) and Edinson Cavani (72’) scored twice and once respectively while Julian Draxler scored the second goal of the match.
In the entire match, visitors looked very shaky on the pitch while the hosts were much organised on the other hand. From the very beginning, PSG were very attacking while most of time, their defence was also looking well-established with a majority of man power. Despite Barcelona (57%) having an excessive possession over the hosts (43%), PSG hugely dominated on the field.
In 18 minutes, Di Maria were 1-0 ahead of PSG after an incredible free-kick. Barcelona defender Samuel Umtiti unnecessarily hit Draxler just outside the penalty box. As a result, the hosts were awarded a free-kick just 21 meters away from the goal which was superbly finished by the Argentine winger. That shot was over the wall which hit at the top-right corner of the net without giving any chance to Barcelona’s goalie (Marc-Andre ter Stegen).
Just five minutes before the first half, Draxler made it 2-0 for the hosts. After snatching a ball from Messi in the middle of the pitch, Rabiot made a ball for Verratti, who played a one-two with Draxler before producing a final ball for an unimpeded Draxler.
Draxler beat ter Stegen with a powerful shot which hit into the bottom left corner.
Di Maria scored his second goal in the 55th minute. Kurzawa produced a ball from left wing to Di Maria, on which the Argentine birthday boy made a space for himself before playing a superb shot from outside the box which hit the top left corner.
In the 72nd minute, another birthday boy Cavani made it 4-0 for PSG.
Barcelona had a best chance to open their account in the 84th minute. From a left-wing corner-kick, Pique’s header found Umtiti, whose header unluckily hit the post. Otherwise, hosts mostly dominated the visitors as Barcelona rarely found any shots on target.
PSG found total their 10 shots on target (16 shots) while devastated Barcelona could not put more than one shot on target (out of 7 shots).