Slick PSG brush ten-man Leverkusen aside
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E-mail Xinhua, February 19, 2014
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Zlatan Ibrahimović is mobbed after making it 2-0 on 39 minutes. |
Three first half goals for Paris were enough to edge ten men Leverkusen in a one sided affair at outsold BayArena in Champions League's last sixteen on Tuesday.
Paris Saint Germain nearly destroyed all hopes of Leverkusen to grab a berth at the next round as a brace by Zlatan Ibrahimovic and goals by Blaise Matuidi and Yohan Cabaye wrapped up a 4-0 win at the first leg on the road.
The visitors from Paris grabbed a bright start as Blaise Matuidi caught the hosts flatfooted when he utilized a through ball by Marco Verratti to beat Leverkusen's custodian Bernd Leno into the far post corner with just three minutes into the game.
Subsequently Paris controlled the proceedings on the pitch although they failed to add another goal against wobbling Leverkusen. The individual class of Paris gave Leverkusen a hard time.
Leverkusen invited the visitors to extend their lead as Emir Spahic conceded a foul play when he brought down Ezequiel Lavezzi inside the box allowing Zlatan Ibrahimovic to double the lead into the bottom left corner at the 39th minute.
Things changed from bad to worse for the hosts as Ibrahimovic sealed his brace to triple the lead for the "Parisians" just three minutes later. Matuidi teed up for the Swedish international, whose hammer found the back of the net at the top right corner.
After the interval Leverkusen tried to make amendments to make up their weak first half performance meanwhile Paris retracted with their 3-0 lead behind.
However, all their efforts were immediately destroyed with the sent off of Spahic who booked his second yellow card at the 59th minute.
Thus ten-men Leverkusen were unable to put up some resistance since Paris were not done with the scoring. Ibrahimovic danced through Leverkusen's defence to set up for Lucas Moura, who assisted Yohan Cabaye with the fourth goal of the night in the dying minutes of the game.
"Such a high defeat hurts. It is the third consecutive loss. However, with a man less you are chanceless against such teams like Paris," Leverkusen's director of sports Rudi Voeller said.
"We have implemented all what we have planned. I am proud of my team," Paris Saint Germain coach Laurent Blanc said.
Leverkusen encounter Paris for the second leg on 12th March.
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