We preview tonight’s UEFA Champions League action.
Paris Saint Germain vs Barcelona
Barcelona and PSG meet against in the UEFA Champions League with the French side keen to finally beat the Spanish giants.
The two sides are littered with world class stars and have big ambition’s of winning the Cup meaning its a match not to miss.
The first leg will be played at the Parc De Princes with the return leg at Nou Camp in March. PSG will not be having the service of Thiago Motta who is on suspension and the Javier Pasore, Grzegorz Krychowial and ALeix Vidal who are out on Injury.
Barcelona have advanced from every knock-out meeting between the sides except the first, which Paris Saint Germain won 3-2 on aggregate back in 1995. These sides last met in the Champions League at the quarter-final stage two seasons ago, with Barcelona dominating.
The Spanish side won the first leg in Paris 3-1 thanks to a brace from Luiz Suarez and an opener from Neymar. It was the Brazilian who completed the job by getting both goals in the return leg at the Nou Camp as Barca advanced 5-1 on aggregate.
In all the last six encounters between these sides, a total of 21 goals were scores making an average 3.5 goals per game. Five-time champion Barcelona eliminated PSG in the quarterfinals in 2013 and 2015, and lost only one of the last six games against the French club in the European competition, in the group stage in 2014.
Benfica v Borussia Dortmund
Benfica will battle it out with Dortmund in the other Champions League game tonight. Borrusia Dortmund with its record breaking attack takes in Portuguese Champions Benfica, who have qualified two times in a role, which is a first for the club. Dortmund will battle it through with the underrated Benfica without the services of their midfielder Mario Gotze, 24 who is out on a leg injury whilst suspended Benfica’s forward Andrija Zivkovic and injured defender Lisandro Lopez will be watching from the terrace.
Dortmund whose form is not convincing, having won two of their 9 games in all competitions, are hoping for a win in Portugal to revive their campaign. Borrusia Dortmund will look for a repeat of history as they edged Benfica in their only meeting back in 1963-64 European Cup first round, winning with a 6-3 aggregate.
BVB has the much more impressive squad of these two teams and is the clear favorite in this tie, having head a success full run in the champions league group stages, finishing ahead of Real Madrid. On the other hand, Benfica has had poor performance in the champion league, though they did enough to get out of it.
