AFTER Barcelona were humbled 4-0 by Paris St Germain in their UEFA Champions League last-16 first leg in the French capital three weeks ago, former Uruguay striker Walter Pandiani offered the deflated Catalans some words of encouragement.

“I would not give up for dead or underestimate anyone!! Football!!” he tweeted, adding a video in which he spearheaded a superb comeback for Barca’s La Liga rivals Deportivo La Coruna against the Parisians in Europe’s premier club competition.

It was from a time when Depor were Champions League regulars.

Pandiani, nicknamed ‘El Rifle’ for his deadly finishing, had joined the club just after they had been crowned Spanish champions at the turn of the millennium.

And in his debut season with the club, PSG came to the Riazor Stadium for their match in the second group stage — the Champions League format back then did not have the last-16 stage.

Depor needed a win to boost their chances of reaching the quarter-finals but they were stunned by PSG who raced to a 3-0 lead by the 55th minute courtesy a brace by Laurent Leroy and a sublime Jay-Jay Okocha effort.

It paved the way for a Pandiani show in one of the most famous Champions League fightbacks. His hat-trick of headers, with another one by Diego Tristan between the first and second, saw Depor claim a thrilling 4-3 victory.

For Barca, though, a 4-3 victory in Wednesday’s return leg at the Camp Nou against PSG wouldn’t be enough.

They would need to better another superb Depor comeback, one steeped in Champions League history and one in which Pandiani starred again, three seasons on from their victory over PSG.

Depor went into their quarter-final second leg against the mighty AC Milan 4-1 down from the first leg. Milan were the defending champions following their penalty shootout victory over Juventus in the 2003 final at Old Trafford and were favourites to advance.

What transpired at the Riazor, though, stunned Milan.

Pandiani had scored a crucial away goal at the San Siro and gave Depor the lead within five minutes of the return with a smart shot.

Juan Carlos Valeron made it 2-0 and Albert Luque’s fierce drive put Depor ahead in the tie on away goals at halftime before Fran sealed a remarkable 4-0 win.

“The Deportivo players were like men possessed, galloping towards a target that only they could see,” former Milan midfielder and Italy’s 2006 World Cup winning midfielder Andrea Pirlo recalled in his autobiography ‘I Think Therefore I Play’, published in 2014. “For our part, we were completely blind, and duly brutalised.”

To this day, it remains the biggest turnaround in the Champions League era and Barca need to match that result to force extra-time on Wednesday.

No side has ever recovered from losing an away leg 4-0 but if Barca can repeat of the results of each of their last two La Liga matches, it would be enough to see them through – a 5-0 demolition of Celta Vigo on Saturday coming after a 6-1 rout of Sporting Gijon in midweek.

More than a decade ago, Depor believed a miracle was on.

“What I tried was to have all the players believing they could overcome Milan,” former Depor manager Javier Irureta, who masterminded that famous victory from the dugout, told Marca in 2013.

“We managed to create an atmosphere of trust that was so great that, coupled with the desire of revenge for the first leg, it ended up being decisive.

“Fundamentally, I told them to go out and bite into them within the first few minutes.”

On Wednesday, Barca need to do exactly that.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2017