The wait is finally over. FC Barcelona and PSV Eindhoven kickstarted the 2018/19 UEFA Champions League campaign. After a disappointing 2017/18 Champions League season, Barcelona will look to break their European trophy drought this season.
Ernesto Valverde fielded a strong side with Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, and Ousmane Dembele upfront in the attack. Valverde brought Philippe Coutinho and Sergio Busquets back to the starting lineup after being rested for the weekend La Liga fixture.
PSV are back in the Champions League after missing out last year’s tournament. The Dutch side destroyed ADO Den Haag 7-0 in their last Eredivisie fixture and as a result, Mark van Bommel fielded an unchanged side at the Camp Nou. Mexico’s World Cup hero, Hirving Lozano, started up front for the Eredivisie side.
It was a familiar story in the end as Barcelona dominated the game and finished 4-0 winners. Lionel Messi grabbed a stunning hat-trick and Ousmane Dembele continued his good start to the season with a goal for himself.
PSV outplayed in the second half
The Eredivisie side stuck to their task in the first half. They frustrated Barcelona for the first 30 minutes and it needed a moment of individual brilliance from Lionel Messi to open the deadlock. PSV had a couple of decent opportunities of their own in the first half, but failed to take advantage of them.
However, van Bommel‘ side were outplayed in the second half. Barcelona came out all guns blazing after the break and kept the Dutch side under pressure. They created a plethora of opportunities and Luis Suarez missed a couple of them, before Dembélé put the game to bed in the 75th minute. It was all one-way traffic after that, as Barcelona grabbed two more goals to end the game 4-0.
Messi becomes the first player in Champions League history to score eight hat-tricks
Lionel Messi scored his 48th career hat-trick on Tuesday. PSV kept Barcelona quiet in the first half-hour. A brilliant Ousmane Dembele run resulted in a Barcelona free kick from the edge of the box in the 32nd minute. Messi stepped up and scored the goal with an incredible strike. It was a stunning effort from the Argentine, and Zoet had no chance of stopping that.
Umtiti had a night to forget
The World Cup winner had a horrible night at the Camp Nou. He wasn’t at his very best throughout the game and failed to play the full 90 minutes. Umtiti was booked for a loose challenge on De Jong in the 55th minute.
He got himself into trouble when he tried to stop Hirving Lozano’s counter attack with a silly foul. As the Mexican international raced down the field, the Umtiti body-checked him and was shown a second yellow card.