PSG in La La Land as broken Barcelona suffer darkest night in City of Light

This was so much like Paris Saint-Germain’s vision of La La Land that it should have been set to music.

In dank, bleakest mid-February in the French capital, this was another day of sun for Unai Emery’s swashbuckling performers against a poverty-stricken assortment of millionaire footballers from Barcelona, who suffered a night of unforgettable darkness in the City of Light.

Barca turned up in name only, and were left confused and bamboozled by their astonishing lack of cohesion on such a celebrated evening in the last 16 of the world game's finest club tournament.

Nights like these rarely happen yet all of PSG’s dreams, and perhaps those of their Qatari owners, came true on an evening you could feel the football world's plates move under the sweltering, awe-struck roar of disbelieving Parisian football fans inside the Parc des Princes.

The former home of French rugby union has witnessed less one-sided clubbings than this startling going-over.

A couple of goals from Angel Di Maria – his first a glorious free-kick that Barca's wall seemed to duck under – a fine finish from Julian Draxler on his Champions League debut for the club and a fourth from Edinson Cavani condemned Barca to their joint-heaviest, and arguably most humiliating defeat, since the European Cup was rebranded as the Champions League in 1992.

This will be remembered as much as the 4-0 loss to Bayern Munich in the 2013 Champions League semi-finals, and the 4-0 dismantling by AC Milan in the 1994 European Cup final. This felt and resembled a defeat for the ages.

It was a momentous evening that probably rivalled Germany’s 7-1 gutting of Brazil in the World Cup semi-finals in 2014 for poignancy. Make no mistake about it, this night will be recalled in Parisian bars and cafes for years to come, the kind of glorious folklore that goes down well over a fine bottle of Bourgogne Pinot Noir.

For Barca, it felt like a dark film noir as their side disintegrated under the intense attacking heat of a ravenous home lot.

A St Valentine’s Day Massacre dished out to Lionel Messi and his Barcelona style merchants, an evening of pure romance for Di Maria on his 29th birthday, Cavani on his 30th, Emery, Draxler, PSG and the one-club city of Paris.

Trust a former Real Madrid winger to be on hand to pour French vino into Barcelona’s gaping lacerations, left wide open by their shocking lack of hunger and willingness to self-harm.

Di Maria was man of the match in Real Madrid’s 4-1 extra-time win over Atletico Madrid in the 2014 final as they celebrated 'La Decima'.

Since then he has been signed for £59m by Louis van Gaal for Manchester United before being discarded by the much-maligned LVG at United, written off as a misfit winger and passed on for around £44m. He looks at home given refuge in Paris.

“It’s been a very special day for many reasons,” said Messi's Argentina team-mate. “I’m very happy with how the team played. We controlled the game over the 90 minutes."

The end of an era for the Barca that neutrals know and love? Perhaps. Certainly the end of the road for Barcelona in the Champions League this year.

There will be no recovery from this dismantling when they reconvene at the Camp Nou for the second leg on March 8. Barca simply do not have the guts or legs for the mission at hand.

Nobody has retrieved such a deficit. 5-0 won't visit PSG unless they self-combust.

When you are flat-track bullies used to getting your own way most of the time, nights like these become the rudest of awakenings. Barca came off a pulverising 6-0 throttling of Alaves, but were given a bitter taste of their own medicine.

Rafinha emerged from the bench to replace Sergi Roberto in the second half wearing a mask to protect his broken nose. It would have been better used to avoid seeing what was being inflicted upon his companions.

Barcelona were outmuscled, outplayed and largely outclassed. Samuel Umtiti, Roberto, Andre Gomes and even the usually immaculate Andres Iniesta were simply washed away in the frantic PSG attacking maelstrom. MSN were rendered impotent, more or less left as dazed witnesses to the assault.

The Spain midfielder Sergio Busquets was in no mood to make excuses with PSG apparently running 8km more than Luis Enrique's troubled team.

"They (PSG) played much better than us and they overwhelmed us physically," Busquets told Catalan television network TV3.

Barca started the game in second gear before the engine of their usually purring football machine decided to conk out.

The inquest into this will be long and hard because it was a flogging that did not flatter PSG. It was four going on six or seven. It could have been four, instead of two, by half-time as the home team simply ripped into an opponent lacking the ability or intelligence to deny them space.

Emery, a three-times Europa League winner with Sevilla, looks a bit like Al Pacino in the PSG technical area, a bit like Scarface.

“Say hello to my little friend,” could have been the cry as German forward Draxler, fresh from his £35m move from Wolfsburg after being consistently linked to Arsenal, plunged the ball into the rigging after the weirdly muted Messi, who did not touch the ball inside the home area all night, had been brushed off the ball ahead of the second goal.

For Barcelona, this felt about as enjoyable as visiting the French capital with your wife on Valentine's Day only for her to elope with your best mate.

This was an evening when the impossible happened. It was a night when Barcelona fell out of love with the sport they have defined.