By Nathaniel Charendoff ’17, Section Editor

The 14th of February, more commonly known as Valentine’s Day, is a day mostly dedicated to the celebration of love and relationships. However, it is important to note that it was also the first day of UEFA Champions League soccer action this calendar year.

The UEFA Champions League is currently in the Round of 16, and the draw is shown on the diagram above. The Round of 16 matches take place on eight different days over the months of February and March. These matches have two “legs”: one leg, or game, played at one team’s home stadium, and the other leg played away at the opposition’s home venue. The team with the best aggregate score over the course of the two legs progresses to the next round.

The most historic upsets ever in the competition occurred on this past Valentine’s Day.

Paris Saint Germain, an admittedly solid French team, managed to defeat a team considered by many to be the best team in world soccer – FC Barcelona – and it wasn’t a close game either. After 90 minutes, Barcelona had been thumped by a scoreline of 4-0. Barcelona’s roster has both talent and depth in every position. Starting on the attacking front, it boasts Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, and Neymar as starting forwards (dubbed “MSN”), certainly one of the greatest trios in the modern game. Since Barcelona was beaten 3-1 by Real Madrid in October 2014, MSN have scored an incredible total of 264 goals. When MSN has started a match for Barcelona, the team has had an 81.3% win percentage, and in the time since their debut in the Champions League, the three have scored 50 out of Barcelona’s total 60 goals. Barcelona’s midfield is held together by veterans Andres Iniesta and Sergio Busquets, and their defense is spearheaded by stalwarts Gerard Pique and Samuel Umtiti. These players have shown game in and game out (and some of them for the better part of the past decade and beyond), their undeniable quality and significance in Barcelona’s unbelievable contemporary dominance. PSG’s ability to not only score four goals on a strong, tight defense, but also to keep a clean sheet against perhaps the most formidable attacking force in the world, illustrates the utterly remarkable nature of the result, which was Barcelona’s joint biggest defeat in all of its lengthy history in the Champions League.

PSG did what so many teams have tried to do in the past but failed. They kept Barcelona from playing out of the back with uniform and smart pressure, and continued that level of organization and compactness throughout the contest. PSG’s defense and midfield, particularly center midfielder Adrien Rabiot, tightly marshaled the Barcelona players, who left gaping holes in the center of the field that allowed PSG players like the dynamic Angel Di Maria, the clinical Edinson Cavani, and the technical Julian Draxler to exploit them with seeming ease. This collapse has led many to believe that Barcelona’s age of overwhelming superiority is coming to an end. As soccer enthusiast Cosimo Fabrizio ‘18 states, “I think it does signal the end of an era. Barcelona, ever since Pep Guardiola left, has started to stray away from their traditional ways of bringing youth through the system, developing fantastic talent, and keeping them up into their twenties. Now, they’re taking the easy way out and outsourcing players and it’s not working. This loss is a clear turning point in the way Barcelona sees themselves, as well as the way the world perceives them.”

Nevertheless, others don’t believe Barcelona’s battering has the same implications. As long time aficionado Anthony Giachin ‘17 has stated, “This doesn’t so much indicate the end of a dominant era as it does the end of an era for certain individuals at the club. Older players like Andres Iniesta and manager Luis Enrique will probably see their time come to an end soon. But, Barcelona still has an unbelievable squad with players like Lionel Messi that would be hard to be beat by any team.” Barcelona looked old and slow against a younger, more vibrant PSG team, and the assessment that some players will have to leave the club seems logical. The old Barcelona way, which was known to stifle the opposition with rapid pressure and tireless work rate, seems to be a strategy slowly being lost with age and time, which can be repaired with the influx of vigorous youth. But, only time will tell how Barcelona will fare.

Barcelona’s shocker is a message to all of us. Anything can happen. It’s just as foolish to surrender without a fight than to be overly confident. Just as PSG has pulled off what many claim to be the impossible, struggling Leicester City might be able to accomplish a similar feat when they take on high-flying Sevilla.

No team has ever overturned a four goal deficit to progress in the Champions League, but if there’s any team that can, it’s Barcelona, even in its fragile state. Don’t be surprised if the Spanish giants come close to pulling off history, but overall, expect Paris Saint Germain to secure a spot in the quarterfinals.