By Peter Ochieng
Spanish La Liga giants Barcelona gained an advantage over French Ligue 1 side PSG, in the first leg of the Champions League quarter final clash, on Wednesday night.
Barcelona won the thrilling tie 3-2 in France, gaining advantage ahead of the return leg in Spain next week.
The Blaugrana took the lead in the 38th minute, when Raphinha scored from a Robert Lewandoski assist.
PSG came back a changed and charged side in the second half as former Barcelona winger Ousmane Dembele and Vitinha scored two quick fire goals within the first five minutes of the resumption.
Barcelona responded soon after, Raphinha scoring his second of the night, before former Chelsea defender Andreas Christensen assured Barca of victory.
Raphinha’s two efforts were enough to earn him man of the match gong.
As such, Barcelona only needs a draw of any kind in the second leg next week, to advance to the semis.
“It was an up and down game but in the end it is a bad result for us,” said PSG manager Luis Enrique.
Enrique is a former Barcelona tactician.
“Huge win,” screemed a post of Barca’s social media pages.
Elsewhere, another Spanish side, Athletico Madrid beat Germany’s Borrussia Dortmund 2-1 at home, to ‘put one leg’ in the semis ahead of next week’s return leg.
Rodrido De Paul and Samuel Lino were on target for the Madrid side. Ivorian Sebastian Haller pulled one back for Dortmund, which means the tie is far from over, so to speak.
On Tuesday night, depending Champions Manchester City forced a 3-3 draw against Real Madrid.
Arsenal scrapped a 2-2 draw against former Champions FC Bayern Munich.
That in itself means at this stage, it is too early to predict the four teams that will be in the semis.