Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona are well placed to reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League after impressive away wins Tuesday at Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City in a one-sided round of 16 first leg matches. Paris enjoyed a 4-0 romp in Leverkusen, and Barca won 2-0 in Manchester.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic led the charge for Paris with a brace, after Blaise Matuidi had given the French champions an early lead. Leverkusen had defender Emir Spahic rather harshly sent off, and supersub Yohan Cabaye completed the rout.
Meanwhile in Manchester, Barca took the lead through a controversial penalty converted by Lionel Messi, in a game-changing incident which saw City's Martin Demichelis sent off. Right-back Dani Alves scored Barca's second goal.
The second legs will be played March 12.
Wednesday will see defending champions Bayern Munich visit Arsenal and AC Milan at home to Atletico Madrid.