PSG, who were without Zlatan Ibrahimovic, suspended for one game
after picking up a red card in the last-16 second leg at Chelsea, fell
behind when Neymar netted from close range at the end of a quick counter
attack in the 18th minute.
Suarez
doubled the tally in the 67th after slaloming through the PSG defence,
who lost captain Thiago Silva to a possible hamstring injury after 21
minutes, and wrapped it up 11 minutes from time with a curling shot into
the top corner.
The hosts reduced the deficit in the 82nd minute when Jeremy Mathieu deflected Gregory van
der Wiel's shot into his own goal as PSG suffered their first loss at
home in Europe since 2006 ahead of the return leg at the Nou Camp next
Tuesday.
In
the absence of the injured Thiago Motta and the suspended Marco
Verratti, Yohan Cabaye and Adrien Rabiot were fielded alongside Blaise
Matuidi in the PSG midfield and the trio's collective lack of Champions
League experience showed.
PSG
started confidently with the classy Javier Pastore delighting the crowd
with delicate twists and turns, but after 18 minutes, the home side
were 1-0 down and they had lost centre back Silva.
Lionel
Messi almost opened the scoring in the 13th minute when his beautifully
curled shot from just outside the area smashed Salvatore Sirigu's right
post, but he was more accurate seven minutes later when he set up Neymar for the opener.
Rabiot
lost the ball near the touchline to Sergio Busquets, who found Messi in
midfield. The Argentine played Neymar through and the Brazil striker coolly finished from close range.
Four
minutes into the second half, Pastore combined with Matuidi before
Barcelona keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen parried away his fierce shot from
18 metres.
Suarez
then danced past substitute David Luiz and Marquinhos before poking the
ball past Sirigu to make it 2-0 to Barca, who had lost 3-2 in Paris in
the group stage earlier in the season.
In
the 79th minute, Suarez ran unchallenged through the middle and curled a
shot into the top corner, only for Van der Wiel to reduce the arrears
three minutes later when his low shot was deflected into the net by Mathieu.
No comments:
Post a Comment
DO POST YOUR COMMENTS HERE.