Luis Suarez's brace leaves PSG in ruins, Barcelona with one foot in semifinals

Thanks for coming out, Paris Saint-Germain.

Barcelona, powered – as has so often been the case this season – by their three-headed beast in attack, waltzed into the French capital on Wednesday evening and romped to a 3-1 victory at the Parc des Princes, taking what looks to be an insurmountable lead back with them to Spain for next week's second leg.

Neymar got the party started, but it was Luis Suarez who stole the show – and David Luiz's dignity – in the second half with a brilliant brace, before the hosts responded with a goal that will likely turn out to be little more than minor consolation.

Here's what you need to know:

• The French side came into the contest on a 33-match unbeaten run at home in European competition, thanks largely to their stellar defensive record in that time. Barcelona didn't get that memo. If they did, they obviously didn't care.

• After the opening quarter of an hour had the excitement of watching paint dry, two members of Barcelona's frightening attacking trident stepped up to bring the contest to life, as Lionel Messi found himself, inexplicably, in acres of space before rolling the ball through to Neymar for the calmest of finishes.

• Minutes later, things went from bad to worse for Paris Saint-Germain. The French side lost defender and captain Thiago Silva after just 21 minutes, with the Brazilian trudging off the pitch, looking despondent, with what seemed to be a hamstring problem. 
• Incredibly, he was replaced by compatriot David Luiz, who just over one week ago was expected to miss a month with a hamstring injury of his own. We'll get back to this point in a minute ....

• Want to see how you execute an offside trap to perfection? Allow Barcelona to put on a clinic:

(Courtesy: Eurosport)

Second half

• PSG came out of the tunnel with renewed vigor in the second half, crafting some openings and getting a couple clean looks at Marc-André ter Stegen's goal, but were unable to really threaten the German shot-stopper with anything but long-range efforts.
• Barcelona lost midfielder Andres Iniesta early in the second half, as the diminutive Spaniard was stretchered off the pitch after taking a knee in the back from Javier Pastore. The resulting scene was one that brought a tear to the eyes of everyone – PSG fans exempt – who loves to see wizardry incarnate on a football pitch.

(Courtesy: @ViscaBarca_1011)

• Midway through the second half, the Luis Suarez show began rolling and David Luiz had the best (worst?) seat in the house.

• Not content with ripping out Luiz's soul in front of a global audience, Suarez came back mere minutes later and stomped on the Brazilian's corpse.

• Poor, poor Luiz. It's almost as though someone who, just last week, was ruled out for a month with a hamstring injury, shouldn't have been playing in this match at all.

• PSG got one back on the 82nd minute, with a seemingly innocuous strike from Gregory van der Wiel taking a wicked deflection off Jeremy Mathieu and skipping over the arm of ter Stegen. The goal was met with mild applause from the home crowd, who seemed to have accepted the fact that the goal came in vain.
• The second leg is set for April 21 at the Camp Nou, where PSG will need a 3-0 win to advance to the semifinals. Yeah, it's over.