Unai Emery silenced his critics in PSG's comprehensive thrashing of Barcelona

Paris Saint-Germain coach Unai Emery is currently basking in the afterglow created by the Ligue 1 giants' phenomenal 4-0 mauling of Barcelona in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League round-of-16 encounter on Tuesday. The Spaniard and his players not only registered their most important result of the season, by some way, they also recorded one of the most significant results in the capital club's relatively short but equally storied -- particularly in a continental sense -- history.
Tuesday was massive for PSG, the squad and the supporters, but it was perhaps even bigger than that for Emery himself. The 45-year-old had his credibility questioned and his poor record against Barca shoved in his face ahead of the Parc des Princes showdown.
Emery and the French champions issued the perfect riposte: a tactically flawless display that shut up all of his critics bar those with an axe to grind or a limited knowledge of football. Since then, almost all of the Basque's previous detractors have viewed him with a newfound respect.
Until this week, Emery had received a lot of criticism from the French press. Some of it, such as his unwillingness to make early substitutions or change formation mid-match, was understandable. However, much of it was not, and it went too far, bordering on verbal bullying at times.
The Barcelona contest was billed as the match the former Sevilla boss absolutely had to lead PSG to victory in, the one in which he had the chance to prove to all of his naysayers that owners Qatar Sports Investments were right to bring him in to replace Laurent Blanc last summer. He did just that and
Emery delivered not only a win, and a convincing one at that, but he set up the team and inspired them to produce one of the all-time great performances in the club's history -- and PSG already had a number of memorable European nights in the books.

The man from Hondarribia has stood up to his bullies, and they have seen that he has a spine and will defend himself when cornered. Now the time has arrived for them to leave him alone and concentrate on continuing the current momentum he and his team are enjoying.
Speaking at his pre-match news conference at Camp des Loges ahead of Sunday's Ligue 1 clash at home to Toulouse, Emery tried to downplay the significance of the Barcelona thrashing but did admit it was important to keep the fans happy.
"We are trying to get the best out of the team, each and every match," Emery told journalists. "We will try and produce another big performance against Toulouse. The most important thing for me is that the supporters are happy and are one with the team. That is what I am expecting from this game."
PSG will almost certainly not produce an equally intense display on Sunday to the one that took down Barca in midweek, but they will not really need to in order to see off Pascal Dupraz's men. Granted, Les Pitchouns already beat the men from the capital once this campaign and their tactically limited but charismatic coach will have his players motivated more than usual. However, the home fans will still be buzzing from the Barcelona win and the players should feed off of that positivity.
Also buoying PSG will be AS Monaco's 1-1 draw at SC Bastia on Friday. Les Monegasques' slip up in Corsica means a win for the hosts will move them to within a point of Leonardo Jardim's men at the Ligue 1 summit just a few weeks after the pair drew in Paris.
Emery acknowledged pre-match that this term's race is tighter than in recent years but put no added importance on it after the Barcelona demonstration.
"Every Ligue 1 match is very important for us," said the PSG boss. "Monaco are in front of us, and Nice are also a very strong side. Last year, PSG comfortably won the title. Two years ago, though, PSG were in a very similar situation to the one we are in today.
"The players have the experience to overtake Monaco at the top. We have spoken about that a lot amongst ourselves because we have a lot of respect for Nice and Monaco. It is with respect and determination that we will overcome these challenges in the league.
"Even if we have won a lot of points since the turn of the year, we are still behind Monaco. We need to be even more determined. Every single player must be totally focused on this game -- it is a very important match for us.
"We want to play well in front of our supporters and celebrate another victory with them."
Emery was starting to be taken a bit more seriously since the start of 2017 after PSG's domestic form picked up. Now he is really gaining momentum, and a win over Toulouse will keep the Barcelona high going into Le Classique at Olympique de Marseille next Sunday.