Messi and co were taken to the cleaners with a 4-0 win by Paris St Germain in the Champions League round of 16 of the 2017 edition. This is a far cry from the PSG we knew after their initial crisis in the domestic front with lackluster performances. It was as if the two teams swapped jerseys before the match with Barca players wearing PSG shirts and PSG vice versa. Unai Emery at the start of the season looked like he might have not suited PSG and the Sevilla methodology of making a small time team great and therefore equals to big team with big budget even greater, seemed to be failing-That is the equation they went for when Emery was hired.
Silky skills are in abundance for PSG, but it was the steel that was missing from them, the toughness to match with that flair that can take a team far is what they seemed to lack when the Champions League appeared every season loomed lik a giant whale that appeared in the classic Herman Melville novel Moby Dick, it was just too much for this crew to handle.
This time however PSG tore all notions of that, they pressed and were hungry and integration on the field was the order of the day, Messi was hunted down like pack of wolves cornering a gazelle, he ran out of space and could not hop or dazzle with his dribbles, it was classic 101 "How to make Messi insignificant". At times I had to see if Messi was on the field or he got subbed, to be fair nobody at Barcelona had a chance with this PSG team they pressed and cornered every ball and space and it was like they had been preparing for this game all their lives.
Angel Di Maria opened the scoring in the 18th minute with a free-kick with the help of a glass wall of Barcelona and later in Sebastian Drexler scored a goal after Barca lost the ball courtesy of...Messi yes that gazelle, half-time score 2-0.
In the second half Di Maria scored in what was the best goal not just this match, but one of those classics you will never forget a left foot curler to the corner of Barca's goal, finally Cavani scored a cracker while running on the go and he swung his leg like a warrior putting the final touches to the enemy with his swing of his bloody mace.
Di Maria was on song, what was interesting is that Emery decided to take him out and bring Lucas Moura in, would Di Maria have scored another one or two more? It did not matter as Cavani did score one after Moura came on, but it did show that the thinking from the bench is more savvy and tactical, Moura though was not exactly a defensive replacement of course, Emery did not let up and PSG still pressed on, this would have meant more injection of or rather sustainability of pace was needed from Emery's side and Lucas Moura duly delivered.
On Barca? Nothing here about Barca, nothing to see folks go home come on ...get out of here nothing here folks.
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