Barcelona secured their place as winners of Group F as they defeated Paris Saint-Germain 3-1 in their Champions League match at Camp Nou this evening.
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The visitors took the lead in the 15th minute of the game as Lucas Moura managed to thread a pass to the feet of Blaise Matuidi inside the box, who then teed up Zlatan Ibrahimovic and the striker fired a left-footed volley past Marc Andre ter Stegen into the bottom corner.
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Barcelona hit back immediately as Luis Suarez chased down a long ball over the top of the PSG defence, and he put a low ball across the face of goal. Lionel Messi was on hand to slide in with a finish to bring his side level.
Lucas should have fired his side back in front when he latched on to a cross at the near post from Matuidi as the striker got in front of Marc Barta, but he could only direct his first-time shot wide of the post.
Laurent Blanc's side were able to break behind the Barcelona defence when Ibrahimovic found himself unmarked down the right. The Swede lofted a cross to the back post for Edinson Cavani, but his strike was well saved by Ter Stegen.
The home side came close to nipping in front when a loose ball from a Pedro cross fell to Suarez in the penalty area, but Salvatore Sirigu beat his effort away with a fine reaction stop.
However, Luis Enrique's men edged ahead when Neymar raided forward with the ball unchallenged and unleashed a powerful strike at goal from 25 yards, which sailed past Sirigu and nestled into the bottom corner.
In the second half, PSG had an excellent chance to restore parity when Lucas weaved his way past Jeremy Mathieu down the right and fired a low cross into the six-yard box.
The home side didn't clear their lines and Cavani swung a foot at the ball, but his effort was blocked on the line by Bartra, while the rebound fell to Matuidi and he failed to sort his feet out before Bartra nipped in again to clear.
The pace of the game dropped for a large period of the second half as both teams appeared to be devoid of ideas in the final third of the pitch, as they were often let down by the poor decisive pass.
Barcelona scored their third of the evening to secure their win as they moved the ball quickly across the box to Neymar on the left, who saw his powerful strike at goal well saved by Sirigu, but Suarez was on hand to fire home the rebound.
Simon Sinclair
