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Barca, PSG put one foot in quarter-finals

AFP

AFP

Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain took control of their Champions League last 16 ties with first-leg victories on Tuesday.

Lionel Messi and Dani Alves scored for Barcelona in their 2-0 win over Manchester City while PSG thumped Bayer Leverkusen 4-0 with Zlatan Ibrahimovic scoring twice in the match in Germany.

Knockout-phase debutants City matched Barcelona in the first half at the Etihad Stadium, but the game changed early in the second period when Martin Demichelis was sent off following a last-man foul on Messi.

The Argentine scored from the ensuing penalty in the 54th minute, taking his tally of goals in this season’s competition to seven.

Despite being a man down, City continued to threaten, but in the final minute Alves ran through to score, leaving Barcelona firmly in the driving seat ahead of the return leg on March 12.

Leverkusen, second only to Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga, suffered their third straight home defeat as Laurent Blanc’s PSG were rarely troubled at the BayArena with Ibrahimovic the architect of the victory with two goals in three first-half minutes.

Left winger Blaise Matuidi put PSG ahead with barely two minutes gone before Ibrahimovic netted a penalty, then added a second when he unleashed a thunderbolt of a shot to make it 3-0 at the break.

Replacement Yohan Cabaye then added PSG’s fourth just before the final whistle.

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