Can Barcelona come back from 4-0 defeat? Could PSG win the Champions League?

Updated 15/02/2017 at 11:20 GMT

In-depth: Barcelona were humiliated against PSG in the Champions League last 16 on Tuesday night. We take a look at what happened, the reaction and what it means for both teams.

Paris Saint-Germain's French midfielder Blaise Matuidi, Paris Saint-Germain's Belgian defender Thomas Meunier and Paris Saint-Germain's French defender Layvin Kurzawa celebrate

Image credit: AFP

What happened?

Barcelona were dismantled. The Catalan side went down to goals from former Manchester United and Real Madrid star Angel di Maria (2), new signing Julian Draxler and Uruguayan striker Edinson Cavani.

Transfers

Arsenal and City to battle over £100m Guimaraes - Paper Round

7 hours ago

Luis Enrique's men were thoroughly outplayed - to huge surprise in most quarters - by the Ligue 1 champions, who have stuttered a bit domestically under new manager Unai Emery this campaign.

However, there were no signs of stalling at the Parc des Princes and the Barcelona manager showed his frustration after the match, when he had a heated exchange with a journalist.

Football reacts - Barca in need of a Pep talk?

Sam Wallace, writing in the Telegraph, believes that, finally, PSG could mount a realistic bid for Europe's biggest prize...

Paris Saint-German have been a club of extraordinary ambition ever since their Qatari owners decided to build a European superpower in a one-club city, but this was the moment when the serial French champions finally looked like they could win the Champions League.

Meanwhile, Pete Jenson, writing in the Mail, put much of the result down to Barcelona's change of style under Enrique...

The Barcelona inquest will start in earnest now. Under Luis Enrique they have relinquished the Pep Guardiola possession-based football that made them kings of Europe in 2009 and 2011. It has not mattered up until now because the front three of Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar have been spectacular and justified the urge to the get ball forward as quickly as possible. But critics have suggested Barcelona have become no more than their forward line and if a team was able to starve the supply then they would be in trouble. The trouble came at the Parc des Princes on Tuesday night.

Papers - Genius Emery and his Magic men

The front pages from around Europe barely need any translating...

And don't mention the ruthless player ratings to Mr Messi...

So, how did this happen?

PSG are a different side this season under Emery - the master of the knockout win, as he proved by winning the Europa League three times with Sevilla. The Spaniard set up his team to press Barcelona's midfield pass masters, Andres Iniesta, Sergio Busquets and Andre Gomes, stifling them for time on the ball. Of course, this is a risky tactic as many sides have tried to dismantle the possession-based style that the Catalans have used to incredible effect over the past decade, only to have the ball passed around them.

But this was a smart, strategic effort where no energy was wasted by the home side and the pressure put on the visitors in turn meant that their star forward line of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez were unable to receive the ball in dangerous areas and influence the game. Messi, for example, had no touches inside PSG's penalty area and only completed 28 passes. PSG also pressured the right side of Barcelona, where Sergio Roberto, usually a midfielder, was deputising as a full-back.

The other side of the coin is that PSG going forwards were superb. They could have scored more than four and Marco Veratti ran the game for them, adding to his burgeoning reputation as one of the best in the business. Has Iniesta finally been usurped as Europe's best passer?

While the Italian arrived in the French capital in 2012, Emery has also smartly added to his squad, with Draxler, a recent addition from Wolfsburg, scoring the second goal and Thomas Meunier also impressing at right-back, putting in some lung-busting runs and supplying an excellent assist for Cavani.

PSG's already powerful squad has been tweaked into an even more impressive unit it seems.

Stats make grim reading for Barca

Whichever way you look at it, Barcelona had problems all over the field, and history is against them...

No side has ever turned round a 4+ goal deficit to progress in a Champions League knockout tie.
Barca faced 10 shots on target vs PSG – their joint-highest in a Champions League match since 2003-04 (also vs Bayer Leverkusen in December 2015).
Paris St-Germain became the sixth team to score four goals in a Champions League game vs Barcelona (after Milan, Dynamo Kiev, Valencia, Chelsea and Bayern Munich).

Can Barcelona turn it around?

Well, looking at the above stat about coming from behind after a 4-0 defeat, then it seems highly unlikely. However, if there is one team on the planet that you would back to score five goals in a game, it is this one.

Enrique, at least, tried to strike a slightly positive note: "It’s extremely difficult for us now,” he said. "But we go back to our stadium and really we need a heroic performance, but why not dream?”

However, it’s not so much the goalscoring that will be a concern but the leaky defence. If PSG score a single goal at Camp Nou, and this will be a far easier task now, given that Barcelona will be chasing the game, then the home side will need six. And, even for them, that's barely a possibility.