With a gala presentation by striker Kylian Mbappé, Paris Saint-Germain beat Barcelona 4-1 this Tuesday at the Camp Nou, with Lionel Messi opening the scoring for the home team in the first leg. of the round of 16 of the Champions League.
With this result, PSG was very close to the place for the quarterfinals of the European competition, since it can lose by up to 3 to 0 in the duel back, scheduled for the 10th of March, in the Parc des Princes, in Paris.
In this first meeting, the Spanish team took the lead in the initial stage, after a penalty scored over the wheel Frenkie De Jong, who received a ball lifted by Messi in the French area and ended up knocked down by touch from left-back Kurzawa.
The Argentine star went into the collection and hit hard in the left corner of Navas, who could not reach (minute 26).
Without Neymar, but with Mbappé
Without counting striker Neymar, who was sidelined by injury, Mbappé was in charge of the visiting team. And the Frenchman’s star was quick to shine. At 32, the striker took advantage of Verrati’s pass in the Spanish area, dodged Lenglet’s marking and amended from the left foot, with no chance of defense for Ter Stegen.
The French turn came around the break. Right-back Florenzi advanced through the bottom line and crossed into the area, where Piqué, who returned to Barça after recovering from an injury, was unable to cut and the ball ended up for Mbappé, who finished before the empty goal (65).
Even with the advantage, the Parisian club maintained the pressure and expanded five minutes later. After Verratti’s free kick, Kean rose free to head inside the goal (70).
Faced with the adverse result, Barça coach, Dutchman Ronald Koeman, made several changes to the team, but which had no effect.
And the coup de grace came in the final stretch of the duel, when in a fast counterattack pulled by midfielder Draxler, the ball reached Mbappé who hit a shot in the angle, decreeing the rout at the Camp Nou.
With three goals in Barcelona, the Frenchman reached five in this edition of the Champions League, one less than strikers Marcus Rashford (Manchester United), Haaland (Borussia Dortmund), Alvaro Morata (Juventus) and teammate Neymar.
Factsheet of the first leg of the round of 16 of the Champions League:
Barcelona – PSG 1 – 4 (1-1)
Stadium: Camp Nou (Barcelona)
Audience: no audience
Referee: Bjorn Kuipers (HOL)
Goals:
Barcelona: Messi (27, from penalty)
PSG: Mbappe (32, 65, 85), Kean (70)
Yellow cards:
PSG: Gueye (20)
Teams:
Barcelona: Marc-Andre Ter Stegen – Sergiño Dest (Óscar Mingueza García 71), Gerard Piqué (Riqui Puig 78), Clément Lenglet, Jordi Alba – Frenkie De Jong, Sergio Busquets (Miralem Pjanic 79), Pedri (Francisco Trincão 79) – Ousmane Dembele, Lionel Messi (cap), Antoine Griezmann (Martin Braithwaite 85). T: Ronald Koeman.
PSG: Keylor Navas – Alessandro Florenzi (Thilo Kehrer 89), Marquinhos (cap), Presnel Kimpembe, Layvin Kurzawa – Marco Verratti (Julian Draxler 73) – Leandro Paredes – Moise Kean (Danilo Pereira 85), Idrissa Gana Gueye (Ander Herrera 46 ), Kylian Mbappe, Mauro Icardi. T: Mauricio Pochettino.
