Zlatan Ibrahimovic helped Paris Saint-Germain to an easy win over a pretty awful Bayer Leverkusen who badly showed their poor form.
Bayer Leverkusen vs. Paris Saint-Germain: Final score 0-4, Zlatan helps Parisians crush Bayer easily
Zlatan Ibrahimovic inspired Paris Saint-Germain to a crushing victory over Bayer Leverkusen, who are all but out after losing 3-0 on their own turf.
Alex Grimm
Blaise Matuidi and Ibrahimovic performed excellently on the night, and the Germans suffered another heavy European defeat to leave them with almost no chance of progressing.
Matuidi was giving an energetic performance in midfield and scored the opener just three minutes into the match after some good interplay with Marco Verratti before storming forwards and sliding a cool finish past Bernd Leno to leave Leverkusen with an early uphill battle.
Ibrahimovic should have scored his first earlier than he did, when more nerves from the hosts led to Leno dropping a ball right at the Swede's feet, but his finish found a Bayer defender in the way of goal. The hosts then had probably their best chance of the game as Stefan Kiessling forced Salvatore Sirigu into a fine save from a free-kick.
Bayer then suffered disaster, however, as they threw away the chance to get back into the game. The hosts had been glad of Emir Spahic being fit to play after suffering an injury, but they oughtn't to have been, as he gave away a needless foul on Ezequiel Lavezzi in the area. Ibrahimovic stepped up to rifle the ball into the bottom corner and PSG almost had the job done with the first half not even finished.
Shortly afterwards, it was, after some excellent work by Matuidi to burst into the box, he turned to look for a teammate to finish and got one. Ibrahimovic arrived on the edge of the area and swept home a fine left-footed effort right into the top corner to leave Bayer all but out.
Half-time left little chance for Bayer to come back into the game, but Laurent Blanc has been the master at suffocating games this year and the second half was a much duller affair.
PSG looked to have a fourth as Matuidi again burst clear and saw his shot go into the net via two deflections, but the goal was disallowed for Lavezzi being in an offside position, although he hadn't really been interfering with play at all. A let-off for Bayer Leverkusen, although it wasn't to do them much good. Leno had to be alert to deny the substitute Javier Pastore just afterwards after the Argentine was teed up by Ibrahimovic.
The visitors would get their fourth regardless, courtesy of January signing Yohan Cabaye planting the ball into the roof of the net from Lucas Moura's cutback to wrap up a resounding victory for PSG. There will be no way back for Leverkusen now -- no team has ever come back from four goals down in the Champions League. And if any team is going to do it, it isn't going to be them.
Bayer Leverkusen: Leno, Hilbert, Spahic, Toprak, Guardado, Bender, Rolfes (Reinartz 46’), Castro, Sam, Kiessling, Son (Brandt 46’).
Paris Saint-Germain: Sirigu, van der Wiel, Alex, Thiago Silva, Maxwell, Verratti, Motta, Matuidi (Cabaye 67'), L. Moura, Ibrahimovic, Lavezzi (Pastore 76'). SUBS: Douchez, Pastore, Cabaye, Marquinhos, Menez, Digne, Rabiot.
Goals: Matuidi 3’, Ibrahimovic 39’ 42’, Cabaye 88’
See More:
