Barcelona 1-4 Paris: Mbappé hits stunning hat-trick

Kylian Mbappé produced a devastating display of finishing as Paris took a giant step towards the quarter-finals.

Match in brief

Barcelona had the better of the early stages with Keylor Navas thwarting Antoine Griezmann before Lionel Messi opened the scoring from the penalty spot after Frenkie de Jong was tripped by Layvin Kurzawa.

Paris responded emphatically as Mbappé thumped in the equaliser, and Mauricio Pochettino's men would have led at half-time had Marc-André ter Stegen not denied Kurzawa.

The Barcelona No1 could not halt the tide, though, as Paris struck twice midway through the second half. Mbappé swept home his second after Alessandro Florenzi burst in behind the home defence, then Moise Kean headed in a Leandro Paredes free-kick to leave the visitors in a commanding position.

You sensed Mbappé would deliver the final blow and he did so five minutes from time, whipping the pick of his bunch across Ter Stegen into the top corner.

Player of the Match: Kylian Mbappé (Paris)

Mbappé with his Man of the Match award and match ballUEFA via Getty Images

"He scored three goals and created danger at every attack."
Cosmin Contra, UEFA Technical Observer

Check out every official UEFA Champions League Man of the Match.

Graham Hunter, Barcelona reporter

On the face of it, this reads badly. A second consecutive home humbling for this club in a competition which had previously seen them unbeaten at Camp Nou for a monstrous number of matches since Bayern inflicted horrible wounds as long ago as 2013. But two key facts are vital. For big chunks of this exceptional match Ronald Koeman's team played with clear ideas, with creative intelligence and character. That they lost was down to three elements: they missed chances, they made more minor mistakes than Paris did, and the visitors are one heck of a team with a phenomenal footballer as their leader.

Chris Burke, Paris reporter

Moise Kean celebrates after making it 3-1AFP via Getty Images

No Neymar, no problem. Mbappé stepped forward and left his staggering mark on an extraordinary game with his second Champions League hat-trick – and his greatest performance to date on the European stage. He and his team-mates recovered after conceding the opener with a display of merciless attacking power; only Mauro Icardi among the forwards failed to find the net, though he too played his part in keeping their fluid football moving. We'll no doubt hear talk of another 'remontada' in the next three weeks, but surely Paris have done enough this time.

Reaction

Kylian Mbappé, Paris forward: "I've always wanted to give the best of myself with Paris Saint-Germain. It's a shirt that means a lot to me. I haven't always succeeded and maybe I'll have bad games, but I've never been someone to hide, even if I make mistakes."

Marquinhos, Paris captain: "It's huge. We're going home with a win. We know the advantage it represents. We've learned from our mistakes. We'll stay humble. There are still 90 minutes to play. We still have goals to achieve in Ligue 1. We have to keep working. If we continue with this spirit and attitude, we can do great things."

Antoine Griezmann, Barcelona forward: "This isn't the image we want to present. It's now a case of lifting ourselves, working until the last second of the tie and seeing what happens. This was a bad performance."

Key stats

Lionel Messi had given Barcelona the lead in the first halfAFP via Getty Images

• Messi has scored 21 goals in Barcelona's last 13 home games in the round of 16, and has 35 goals in his last 30 home UEFA Champions League knockout matches.

• Messi converted his 16th penalty in the UEFA Champions League – he has not missed one in the competition since 2015.

• Paris scored for a 20th consecutive away game in the UEFA Champions League – only Real Madrid (22 games, 2010–14) have had a longer streak.

• Mbappé's triple strike took him past Pauleta as the third highest scorer in Paris history on 111 goals.

• Barcelona had not conceded more than one goal in their last 15 home matches in the UEFA Champions League knockout phase before this game.

• Mbappé is the first visiting player to score a hat-trick in the Camp Nou in this competition since Andriy Shevchenko for Dynamo Kyiv in 1997.

Line-ups

Barcelona: Ter Stegen; Dest (Mingueza 71), Piqué (Puig 79), Lenglet, Alba; De Jong, Busquets (Pjanić 79), Pedri (Trincão 79); Messi, Griezmann (Braithwaite 85), Dembélé

Paris: Navas; Florenzi (Kehrer 89), Marquinhos, Kimpembe, Kurzawa; Gueye (Herrera 46), Paredes; Kean (Danilo 85), Verratti (Draxler 73), Mbappé; Icardi

What's next?*

Both teams have a number of domestic fixtures prior to the second leg on Wednesday 10 March.

Barcelona
21/02: Cádiz (h)
24/02: Elche (h)
27/02: Sevilla (a)
03/03: Sevilla (h), Copa del Rey
07/03: Osasuna (a)

Paris
21/02: Monaco (h)
28/02: Dijon (a)
02/03: Bordeaux (a)

*League fixtures unless otherwise stated