Barcelona 1-1 PSG: Barca survive scare and reach UCL semifinals for a record 6th consecutive time

Barcelona hold on to their Champions League dream, at least for now. Paris Saint-Germain managed to scare the Catalans sans Messi by taking the lead at the Camp Nou through Javier Pastore, only to see Messi come on as a substitute and prove to be the difference between the two sides. Barca have now progressed to the semifinals of the Champions League for the sixth consecutive time, a record in itself, on the merit of away goals as the aggregate score stood at 3-3.

Starting lineups and team selection

Barcelona: Valdes – Alves, Pique, Adriano, Alba – Xavi, Busquets, Iniesta – Villa, Fabregas, Pedro

Messi did not make it to the starting eleven. When the best player in the world is in your team and when he is injured and cannot play, it undoubtedly makes a difference. Probably the idea was that Barca were already going through on away goals, so why risk Messi unnecessarily? So Fabregas, the hero of the league game against Mallorca, started in Messi’s false nine position. Pedro and Adriano, both of whom recovered from injuries were also given starting berths.

PSG: Sirigu – Jallet, Silva, Alex, Maxwell – Lucas, Veratti, Motta, Pastore – Ibrahimovic, Lavezzi

Ancelotti made two changes to the eleven that started the first leg. Matuidi, having been suspended, was replaced by Thiago Motta, an ex-Barcelona player, which was a bit of a surprise since there were concerns regarding his fitness after having just recovered from injury. Beckham, who was expected to start the match, was replaced by Veratti, the 20-year-old youngster.

Tactics and analysis

PSG started the game very positively with Lavezzi finding himself through on goal twice within just five minutes. Fortunately for Barca, he managed to convert neither of them. The Barca defence, as expected, was looking very shaky in the final third. But the problem was that the usual penetration of the Barca attack was missing due to the absence of Messi.

After Lavezzi’s early chances, Barca started dominating the possession, as is their right these days, but no clear cut chances were forged as evidenced by the fact that Barca had 23 shots on goal, but only 2 of them were on target. PSG, on the other hand, had 16 shots on target, with 8 of them on target. Iniesta was the man who was trying to make it all happen for the Barca attack as he attempted a delightful lob on goal from 45 yards out after Veratti gifted the ball to him on the halfway line and he spotted the keeper off his line.

Lucas Moura then started to use his pace as he willingly took on the Barca defenders whenever he had the chance and fashioned one or two chances which sailed well over the bar. But any match-changing moment was yet to come and when it came, it fell to Lavezzi. Ibrahimovic, who was having a quiet game till that moment, slipped an excellent ball to Lavezzi after 24 minutes, only for Lavezzi to shoot onto Valdes’ legs. A few minutes later, Valdes was forced into action yet again to make a save off Lucas’ header from Ibra’s cross.

The game was looking very open with PSG looking the more likely of the two to open the scoring. On the other end of the pitch, Barca’s best chance was an over-hit shot from David Villa. Fabregas, who was filling in for Messi, also had his share of wayward shots and by halftime, although Barca had 62% of the possession, PSG had better chances to open the scoring.

Messi, who was on the bench, was clearly getting restless as halftime approached, as he watched Barca’s defence being carved open time and again. He looked ready to come onto the pitch should PSG score and when they did score through Pastore soon after the second half began, Messi immediately started putting on his shoes to have a go at the PSG defence. Pastore, who was inconspicuous till that moment, was put through after Ibra threaded yet another excellent ball and Pastore finished coolly with his left foot to put PSG ahead.

The entire Camp Nou gave a huge roar as Messi came onto the pitch and the change could not have been more remarkable. There was a sense of urgency now in Barca’s attacks as Iniesta fashioned a chance in the blink of an eye after a quick one-two with Villa. Although Sirigu saved the curled shot, everyone on the pitch knew that Barca had stepped up a gear. And it took Messi less than 10 minutes to make the difference as he pushed a ball through to Villa after a burst of pace to get past a couple of defenders. Villa then laid it off for Pedro to unleash a powerful shot and draw Barca level.

From then on, it was cruise mode for Barca. Interestingly, after Messi’s arrival, Barca’s defence also improved considerably and PSG found it a lot more difficult to create chances than they did earlier. Barca kept possession well and the only moment of awe came from who else but Iniesta, when he pulled off an amazing turn in the box and the defenders were left looking at empty space where he had just stood. Iniesta’s subsequent shot hit the side netting, but it did not matter much at the end of the day as Barca held onto the draw and progressed through to the semifinals.

What the teams can take from the tie

Barcelona: Defend better. Barcelona are riding their luck dangerously on these European nights. Teams don’t always miss out on chances as Milan did in the last round and as PSG did in this round. Although it was a solitary chance for Milan, PSG had quiet a few chances, so the defending seriously needs to get better. Barcelona without Messi is definitely not the same as Barcelona with Messi. But it is still a good team which can defeat any other side on a given day. Having said that, Barcelona can play a lot better if they can devise another system with Villa as their main striker instead of simply replacing Messi with Fabregas because those are very big shoes to fill. Reaching the semifinals of this competition for the sixth consecutive time shows how dominant they have been in that last few years and they will be looking forward to the draw on Friday to find out who their semifinal opponent is. If it is Real Madrid, get ready for some serious Mourinho coverage.

PSG: PSG can take a lot of pride in their performance over the two legs. Although one of their goals was offside and another was a result of Valdes’ mistake, they showed that they can compete with Europe’s best. They did not look to score only on the counter-attack, but in fact had some serious spells of dominance. Not a lot of teams can say that when they play against Barca. Ibra put in a mature and excellent performance in the second leg and Lucas Moura is undoubtedly a player to watch out for. They have a solid defence and a lot of pace to support the attack. Beckham surely has more than just playing time to offer to this team. It is said that teams have to play in the Champions League for a couple of years to get a measure of the big European nights before they can actually go on to win it. So, PSG can take this as a very good experience and show that it is indeed a long term project that they are all part of.

Man of the Match: Iniesta

Don Andres was the leader of the attack in the absence of Messi and rightly so, as he troubled defenders with his other-worldly ball control. It seems as if he is gliding over the pitch instead of running on it as all other human beings do. Barcelona will just hope that he doesn’t pick up any injury till the end of the season as he has a penchant for scoring those all-important goals in the big matches.