It’s not that PSG are an example of where French football is right now, but they’ve certainly showed something about the Bundesliga bubble with a 4-0 win over Leverkusen in Germany, as Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored twice, including a beautiful rocket with his weak foot to put the Parisians in the quarterfinals.
There is one more leg left to play in Paris, but it won’t matter. PSG got the lead after only three minutes as the terrible Leverkusen defense fell apart; Marco Verratti found Blaise Matuidi with a beautiful pass to to give them that precious away goal.
PSG continues to dominate possession while Leverkusen went on futile counter attacks. Zlatan Ibrahimovic was fouled by Emir Spahic in the 38th minute which got Spahic his first yellow card of the evening, while Ibrahimovic scored the penalty kick he helped win.
A couple of minutes later, and some Leverkusen fans had an excuse to actually leave the stadium. Zlatan Ibrahimovic looked for the long range shot but didn’t find it. The ball went into the box and back out again to Ibrahimovic, who finally took a shot with his left foot, scoring into Leno’s top corner from 23 meters out in what is one of the best goals we’ve seen this season.
One long second half of garbage time did have two events worth mentioning: Emir Spahic was sent off with a second yellow card in the 59th minute, and Yohan Cabaye scored his first goal for his new team in the Champions League off a clever assist from Lucas Moura.
The German Bundesliga might be better than Ligue 1, but PSG aren’t indicative of their league. They’re not quite a super team yet, but they’re good enough to do what a limited Manchester United team did a few months earlier in the same stadium, looking like they didn’t even break a sweat doing it.