By David Lee Wheatley
Barcelona progress
The fans at Camp Nou seemed strangely subdued last night, as if they knew a tough encounter was afoot when facing Paris Saint-Germain in the 2nd leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie.
Barcelona, led by Iniesta, initially seemed in control of the midfield, getting forward on many occasions only to be let down by the final pass or a wayward shot.
However, PSG got into the game more and more as the half went on, coming close to scoring on the breakaway when Lavezzi found himself one-on-one with Barca keeper Valdes, but the stopper stayed big to block the shot.
The French side were hitting Barcelona on the counter-attack repeatedly, while the likes of Villa and Fabrégas were looking toothless up front for the Catalans.
The injured Lionel Messi sat nervously on the bench due to a hamstring strain picked up in the first leg in Paris last week and it was evident that the Blaugrana were missing the little magician.
The match was all square at half-time, with Barcelona still holding the away goals advantage after a 2-2 draw in the first game. The home side failed to get one shot on target during a hugely frustrating first half for the Spanish league leaders.
Matters worsened early in the second period when PSG struck on 50 minutes to go one up on the night and 3-2 ahead in the tie. A neat move ended with a fine pass from Ibrahimovic for Javier Pastore to run on to and the midfielder dinked the ball home past Valdes, with the slightest of touches off the keeper's body as the ball made its way into the net.
The silence in the stadium was deafening as the public of Barcelona sat disbelieving of what they were witnessing. It was time for a half-fit Messi to enter the fray just over ten minutes later, as coach Tito Vilanova attempted to redress the balance of the tie.
Despite not playing at full tilt, Messi seemed to inject some belief into his team-mates with his arrival and the fans became vastly more vocal in support of their hero. Despite having world-class talent in their ranks such as Xavi and Iniesta, it is Messi who seems to make the team tick and they miss him greatly when he's absent from the line-up.
Messi probed for an equaliser and it was a through-ball from the Argentine maestro that found Villa inside the box with his back to goal, before he expertly held off his marker to lay off for the onrushing Pedro to smash the ball into the bottom right-hand corner of the net after 72 minutes.
PSG began to retreat and were starting to feel the full force of the Barcelona attack, as wave after wave came in their direction. In an attempt to stem the tide they brought on David Beckham with seven minutes left on the clock, but it was too late as Barca progressed into the semi-finals of the competition on the away goals rule.
It had been a valiant effort from the away team and it bodes well for the future of this burgeoning PSG side that they almost did enough to knock out what some people consider to be the best team in the world.
Follow me on Twitter: @davewh1980
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