Birthday boy Angel di Maria scored twice as Paris Saint-Germain ripped Barcelona to shreds in Paris, suggesting that, after six years of incredible spending, they have finally arrived at the Champions League top table.
It had to be Di Maria, with his Real Madrid past and his love-heart celebration, perfect for Valentine's night, but this was a stunning team performance that left Barcelona shell-shocked and facing elimination from Europe at the last-16 stage.
Things started badly for Barcelona when Samuel Umititi upended Draxler on the edge of the area on 18 minutes and Di Maria stepped up to take the free-kick. It wasn’t his greatest, but it was enough to beat Suarez’s jump and fly past a static Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
From Messi’s lapse came the second goal. Marco Verratti motored forward and released Draxler, who shot past Ter Stegen to give the home side a deserved 2-0 half-time lead.
Despite the first-half horror show from Barcelona, it was PSG that started the second 45 minutes as if their Champions League survival depended on it. Verratti, Rabiot and Blaise Matuidi continued to over-run Sergio Busquets and, on 55 minutes, Di Maria had his second.
Matuidi got away from Andre Gomes and fed Di Maria. He wriggled into space and curled the third goal into the top right-hand corner of Ter Stegen’s net. It was vintage Di Maria and it pushed Barcelona closer to a Champions League exit.
Barcelona were still wide open in midfield and when Neymar was robbed by Thomas Meunier and he was allowed to roam forward and release Edinson Cavani who rifled his shot first-time past Ter Stegen.
The Uruguayan celebrated as if PSG had won the European Cup - they are very close to having knocked out one of the favourites, so who’s to say they won’t.
-Dailymail