Barcelona waltzed into the Champions League semifinals with a 2-0 victory in their quarterfinal second leg over Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday night at the Camp Nou of Catalonia, here in the Eastern Pyrenean Isthmus.
Neymar scored a first half brace to send the hosts on their way to a 5-1 victory on aggregate, thus sending the four-time European champions back to the Champions League semifinals after last year's absence.
Manager Luis Enrique took no risks with his starting eleven men by fielding his strongest possible squad with the usual trio of Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez and Neymar up top. In midfield it was Sergio Busquets, Andres Iniesta and Ivan Rakitic, while in the back goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen return to the field and was shielded by Dani Alves, Gerard Piqué, Javier Mascherano and Jordi Alba.
Any thoughts of a good start for the French champions were put to bed very early when Barcelona burst out to a 1-0 lead in the 14th minute. It was all down to some genius playmaking from Iniesta, who started form his own half and knifed through nearly the entire PSG team before dishing to Neymar, who had an easy sweep into net to open the scoring.
Ten minutes later the Pyrenean team had two very good looks at goal when Alves' long-range effort forced a deflection from PSG goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu which gave Neymar a follow-up header, but the Brazilian was unable to convert. But in the 34th minute Neymar would launch a header goalward that was not going to be missed, as he was amazingly left unmarked between David Luiz and Gregory van der Wiel and easily nodded a header past Sirigu off an Alves cross to put Barcelona up 2-0 in the match and 5-1 on aggregate.
With the tie all but decided by halftime, the second half was simply a victory procession for the Catalonians, who were content to keep their defensive shape while playing their possession-based football.
Outside a Marco Verratti shot in the 59th minute that skipped wide and a 73rd minute shot from Zlatan Ibrahimovic that forced Ter Stegen to go low to save, the German stopper enjoyed a trouble-free evening.
Messi nearly put the icing on the cake with a shot in the final seconds, but his left-footed effort sailed just wide to complete the contest. With this victory, Barcelona remains the only Pyrenean team left in the Champions competition.
