PSG will make it tough for Barcelona in the Champions League
CosminIftode / Shutterstock.com
The 2016/17 Champions League resumes this week and to get things started, two clubs who know each very well meet at the Parc des Princes, as Paris Saint-Germain welcome Barcelona to Paris for the first leg of their Round of 16 tie.
The teams are no strangers to each other, having met in the Champions League on several occasions, the most recent of which was in the 2014/15 season. Barcelona defeated PSG over two legs, winning both, including a 3-1 victory in the away leg, so PSG will need to be wary of allowing the Catalans a lead to take back with them to the Camp Nou. Surely anything other than a PSG win in this game, will see them eliminated from the competition.
During the group stages of the 2014/15 Champions League, PSG defeated Barcelona 3-2 at home and a similar result in this match, would at least give Unai Emery’s team something to hold on to when they travel to Spain. However, away goals can be crucial and PSG must get the balance right between attack and defence.
PSG are defending an unbeaten home record in all competitions at home this season and will hope that continues after this game. However, in the Champions League group stages, they won only one of their three games and were held by Arsenal and Ludogorets, which is not a good sign ahead of this match. You must go back to April 2015 to find the last time PSG lost a home Champions League game and the team to beat them were Barcelona.
Having lost to Athletic Club in the Copa del Rey at the start of the year it is now six games unbeaten on the road in all competitions for Barcelona. However, the draws at Villarreal and Real Betis show they can be forced to struggle and Unai Emery should know a thing or two about them, having managed Sevilla in La Liga for many years.
Away from home in the Champions League, Barcelona have lost a couple of games recently, most notably to Manchester City, 3-1 in the group stages this season and 2-0 at Atletico Madrid in the quarter-finals of the 2015/16 Champions League, a result which saw them eliminated from the competition.
To win this match, PSG will be looking towards their leading striker, Edinson Cavani. Having found the back of the net again at the weekend, it’s now 31 goals in 30 games for the Uruguayan this season, 6 of which have come in the Champions League, at an average of 1 goal per game.
The question is, can PSG attack while keeping Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar quiet at the other of the pitch? PSG have kept only one clean sheet in their last five home Champions League games and Barcelona have scored in fourteen of their last fifteen away Champions League games.
This suggests, the best PSG can hope for from this game is a score draw and it should be a match which sees plenty of chances created, at both ends of the pitch. A draw and both teams to score is a tempting bet.
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