Paris Saint-Germain flexed their muscle with a 4-0 victory over Bayer Leverkusen in the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 first leg on Tuesday night.
The French champions controlled proceedings at the BayArena to place one foot into the quarter-finals courtesy of a first-half double from Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Laurent Blanc's side took a very early lead when Blaise Matuidi ran onto a ball from the impressive Marco Verratti to slot beneath die Werkself keeper Bernd Leno inside three minutes.
That set the precedence for Ibrahimovic and he converted confidently from the spot in the 39th minute after Emir Spahic was questionably penalised for a foul on Ezequiel Lavezzi.
Three minutes later, Ibrahimovic produced a moment of magic when he thundered a first-time left-footed effort into the top right corner from the edge of the area which gave Leno absolutely no chance, putting the Parisians into the drivers' seat.
The second was all academic as PSG simply went about their business but there was some more action of consequence as Spahic was sent off after receiving a second yellow card just before the hour-mark.
Winter signing Yohan Cabaye made his way onto the pitch with just over 20 minutes remaining and was able to open his account for his new club when side-footing into the top corner after receiving a neat pass from Lucas Moura.
PSG will head into the return leg at Parc des Princes on March 12 full of confidence that they can avoid a disastrous five-goal defeat while Sami Hyypia's Leverkusen will be trying in vain to pull back the hefty deficit.
2013/14 UEFA Champions League - Round of 16 first leg
Bayer Leverkusen (GER): 0 (red card: Emir Spahic 59') Paris Saint-Germain (FRA): 4 (Blaise Matuidi 3', Zlatan Ibrahimovic (p) 39'/42', Yohan Cabaye 88') BayArena, Leverkusen, Germany - 29,412
