Raphinha and Christensen give Barça upper hand

On a gripping, frantic night at the Parc des Princes Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona produced a game that felt like the opposite of the "Barca DNA" Xavi had spoken about in the buildup to this Quarter-final first leg.

- Barney Ronay

Paris St-Germain 2

Barcelona 3

Never mind control, patterns and a fight for space. This was an increasingly wild game, building from a mannered start into a second half of sweeping mob-handed attacks, feather-lite defending and chances that simply came and went, posts clipped, shots blocked in desperation.

By the end Barcelona had probably done enough to deserve their 3-2 lead heading back to the Camp Nou for the second leg. But nobody who watched the wilder parts of this game would see anything other than more goals on both sides there. Frankly, this could have been anything.

Security around the Parc des Princes had been significantly beefed up before the game in response to the threat from the terror group Isis. Drones circled the sky. Heavily tooled-up police occupied the corners. Paris 2024 is still planning a mass city centre Olympic opening ceremony a hundred days from now. It keeps on being scaled back. Expect a little more of that from here.

Inside its brutalist concrete walls the Parc was rocking at kick-off, drenched in a lengthy pre-match Star Wars-themed son-et-lumière Barcelona had Frenkie de Jong back from injury in central midfield, with the hugely exciting teenager Lamine Yamal starting.