MAYBE Paris St Germain needed to let go of Zlatan Ibrahimovic to show their mettle in Europe.

Maybe sacking coach Laurent Blanc at the end of last season was what they needed to get the better of a European heavyweight like Barcelona.

Maybe they needed to splash out around 50 million euros on a Manchester United flop last season to blow away the Catalans 4-0.

Maybe it was a combination of all three but it was the United flop who made the most telling difference at the Parc des Princes in Paris on Tuesday night.

Angel Di Maria turned in a vintage performance with a stunning brace and goals by Julian Draxler and Edinson Cavani helped PSG deliver the statement they’ve wanted to deliver since Qatari owners QSI took over back in 2011.

Tearing apart a team that has set the benchmark for the rest of Europe — and the world — to follow in the 21st century certainly delivers an emphatic statement that they belong at Europe’s top table.

And certainly no team, not even Barca with their world-class attacking trident of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar, can claw back this deficit with the second leg of this Champions League last-16 tie to come at the Nou Camp on March 8.

PSG are all but through to the quarter-finals of Europe’s premier club competition — a stage where they’ve failed to go beyond in each of the last four seasons, twice going out to Barca.

Last summer was one of transition, with inspirational striker Ibrahimovic leaving for the club they’d signed Di Maria from a season earlier while giving the boot to Blanc.

Blanc’s replacement was Unai Emery, a serial Europa League winner with Sevilla and a man PSG hoped would take them to the next level in Europe.

His past record against Barca — just one win in 23 matches — meant PSG were given little chance.

But his PSG hybrid — he went with an attacking 4-3-3 with Di Maria, Draxler and Cavani upfront — produced a rip-roaring performance to hand Barca a defeat which evoked memories of the Catalans’ drubbing by a similar scoreline by Bayern Munich in their semi-final first leg in 2013.

Many saw that defeat by Bayern marking the end of Barca’s era of European supremacy.

Barca, however, rebounded superbly by routing Bayern en route to winning the Champions League in 2015 – their fourth title in a decade showing they’re the most dominant club of their generation.

PSG’s victory on Tuesday, however, might mark the start of an era for the Parisians — an era which began by ending their reliance on Ibrahimovic.

Ibrahimovic became PSG’s emblem following QSI’s takeover. And while he led them to four successive Ligue 1 titles, he often went missing when the side needed his inspiration most – most often in the crunch Champions League quarter-finals.

No one summed up that better than midfield enforcer Adrien Rabiot.

“There were players [last season] who took up a lot of space, like Ibra,” Rabiot told French newspaper Le Figaro. “The spotlight was at him. As a result, we saw less of the others. Since his departure, there are many players who express themselves.”

‘SAME FACE’

The players expressing themselves on Tuesday were PSG’s goal-scorers –players the club spent huge amounts of money to bring in.

In an apparent jibe at PSG’s lavish spending, Spanish newspaper AS ran a story titled “PSG: 702 million euros on 60 players in bid for Champions League glory”, perhaps forgetting that Barca have spent in excess of 500 million on new faces during the same period.

“But Paris, the city of glamour, still wants more,” it added. “A Messi, Neymar or Suarez for example, all of whom will be in the Parc des Princes on Tuesday night but on the opposing team.”

Messi, Neymar and Suarez ended up on the opposite end of a scoreline that matched Barca’s worst-ever defeat in Europe.

“I lived the 5-0 loss with Real [Madrid] against Barca and ended that game with the same face they finished today,” Di Maria told BeIN Sports after the match, reminiscing Real’s capitulation to their arch-rivals in La Liga back in 2010.

Di Maria did have his moments against Barca though during his time in Spain with Real, scoring against them in the Spanish Super Cup in 2012 and the Copa del Rey final in 2014.

Man-of-the-match in the 2014 Champions League final with Real, he was struggling in the first half of the season as PSG’s Ligue 1 title challenge faltered.

But with Draxler — who arrived from VfL Wolfsburg in January — and Cavani troubling Barca’s defenders with their movement and the midfield axis of Rabiot, Marco Verratti and Blaise Matuidi bossing the game in the centre of the pitch, Di Maria showed why he is one of the best game-changers around with goals either side of half-time.

Cavani has admirably taken over as PSG’s attacking spearhead in place of Ibrahimovic, taking his tally to 34 goals in 32 games this season after his superb first-time strike against Barca while keeping PSG on the coattails of Ligue 1 leaders Monaco.

Halfway through the season, Emery’s imprint is now truly on PSG.

PSG pressed Barca deep in their own half and harried their opponents after losing possession in a tactical masterclass by their coach.

It disturbed Barca’s formation, pushing Messi and Suarez to the centre where Verratti and Rabiot were onto them in a flash while right-back Thomas Meunier rendered Neymar, left all alone on the left wing, ineffective.

It gave way to thrilling counterattacks that exposed Barca’s soft centre.

Having shown his knack for winning on the continental stage by guiding Sevilla to three successive Europe League crowns, he can replicate that with this PSG side in the Champions League — the title its Qatari owners have been craving most — on the basis of their first-leg performance against Barca.

It could be the start of an era for PSG. Going through to the quarter-finals at Barca’s expense would give more air to that claim.

Published in Dawn, February 16th, 2017