Both Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain will believe they can still progress to Wembley after three goals in the final eleven minutes lit up an extremely entertaining match in Paris.
Blaise Matuidi’s last gasp equaliser kept this tie alive as PSG pegged Tito Vilanova’s side back twice. Lionel Messi gave Barca a first-half lead, and whilst Xavi’s penalty looked to have given the Spaniards a first leg advantage, after Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s leveller, Matuidi kept Carlo Ancelotti’s hopes of a third Champions League as a coach alive.
PSG set up defensively, with a solid back six marshalled by former England captain David Beckham and 25-year old French international Matuidi. This unit, coupled with the exciting attacking quartet of Lucas Moura, Javier Pastore, Ezequiel Lavezzi and Ibrahimovic helped the French side dictate the early play, and they almost took the lead just four minutes in, when Lavezzi’s progress was interupted by Sergio Busquets, and the Spaniard’s tackle deflected the ball onto the post, but the Liga BBVA leaders cleared.
Barca typically had the majority the ball but it was the hosts who had the next big chance as Pastore’s thumping effort was collected by Valdes at the second time of asking. Just past the quarter-hour mark, Barca had their first real chance as Andres Iniesta saw his effort flash wide of Salvatore Sirigu’s post.
As the chances began to swing from one team to the other, Valdes pushed an Ibrahimovic freekick wide, before a timely interception from Thiago Silva prevented Lionel Messi from adding to his 22 goals in 2013. Soon after, PSG’s Italian goalkeeper Sirigu held an Iniesta strike from the edge of the box.
Neither team could grab a dominant hold on the first half, but after 25 minutes, the French league leaders missed a glorious chance. Alex’s tackle on David Villa allowed the former Chelsea defender to set his fellow Brazilian Moura free, who in turn fed Ibrahimovic, and the Swede failed to test his former Barcelona team-mate Valdes, dragging his effort tamely wide.
Barca had so far failed to get the talismanic Messi involved heavily, and were suffering offensively. However, that all changed dramatically with seven minutes of the first half remaining. Dani Alves picked up the ball outside the D, before playing a sumptuous outside-the-foot pass directly into the run of the Argentinian, and Messi made no mistake, finding the corner, and his 57th goal of the campaign, allowing Barca to go in to the break with a crucial away goal guaranteed.
Messi, who has now scored in 20 different cities in the Champions League, did not emerge for the second half, seemingly picking up a hamstring injury, and the Catalan side will hope it will not keep their main man out for too long. Messi was replaced by Cesc Fabregas, and the former Arsenal skipper saw an early effort blocked by PSG captain Silva, as Barca looked to assert their dominance in the second period. This was followed by a simple save for Sirigu from a Sergio Busquets volley.
Just past the hour mark, Alexis Sanchez missed two big chances, the Chilean panicking after receiving Alves’ cross, before volley straight at PSG’s goalkeeper after a great pass from Fabregas. Alves saw a freekick fly just wide before Maxwell nearly equalised at the other end against his former employees, but his weak effort was held by Spain’s number two goalkeeper.
With PSG seemingly running out of ideas, up stepped the man who has stepped up so many times for them this season in Ligue 1. After Ibrahimovic saw a poor finish find only the chest of Valdes after finding himself in a generous amount of space, just two minutes later he made amends and punished his former team, in controversial fashion. Thiago Silva met a freekick from the left with a thumping header, which rattled the post, but the €20million striker found the net with the rebound, albeit from a clearly offside position.
The Parc des Princes was rocking and Zlatan nearly created the winner for his side when his header fed substitute Kevin Gameiro, but the Frenchman was booked for a foul on Alves whilst chasing the chance down, before a moment of madness from Sirigu looked to have handed the first leg, and possibly the tie, to the visitors.
The Italian shot stopper pulled down Sanchez and was booked for his efforts. Captain for the evening, Xavi, in the absence of Messi, stepped up, and coolly slotted the ball in the bottom corner, sending the keeper the wrong way.
Yet there was still time for a little more drama.
With it seemingly unlikely that PSG would win at the Nou Camp, they knew they would need to force an equaliser, and they did so with their last chance of the game.
The enigmatic Ibrahimovic looked to at least delay Barca’s progression to a sixth consecutive semi-final, when he headed the ball down to the excellent Matuidi, and the Frenchman made no mistake, firing the ball past (and through) Valdes, who should have done better, to find the bottom left corner, and set up an exhilarating second leg in eight days’ time.
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