Paris, (Samajweekly) The Champions League Round of 16 action starts this week with two matches on Tuesday — multiple-time winners Real Madrid taking on Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City facing Sporting Lisbon.
On Wednesday, German giants Bayern Munich face Austrian minnows Salzburg while Italian champions Inter Milan clashing with Liverpool.
With all four heavyweights — Real Madrid, Man City, Bayern and Liverpool — playing away in the first leg, their rivals have a chance of taking an early advantage in the two-leg battle.
The focus will, however, be on two encounters — Real v PSG and Inter v Liverpool.
After closing out the Group Stage with a 2-0 win over Inter, Real Madrid go into the business end of the competition at the Parc des Princes. Ancelotti’s team goes into the clash having finished top of Group D with 15 points, after picking up five wins and one defeat in clashes against Shakhtar, Inter and Sheriff.
They scored 14 goals and conceded only 3, with Benzema the leading marksman with five. Vini Jr., Rodrygo and Kroos hit two, while Asensio and Alaba got one each. The final Real goal in the group stage was an own-goal.
PSG finished second in Group A, taking the race for top spot against Manchester City to the final game. It will be the seventh time Real Madrid and PSG cross paths in the Champions League since 2015 — the head-to-head so far reads three wins for the Whites, two draws and one loss.
Madrid are likely to run into many familiar faces in the French capital. One among them will be Sergio Ramos, a four-time Champions League winner with Real, who is however a doubtful starter because of an injury.
Ángel Di María — who scored twice for the hosts when the teams met in Paris in the 2019/20 group stage — and goalkeeper Keylor Navas will also be up against their former employers, while Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti, in charge of the Ligue 1 champions from December 2011 to May 2013, also returns to the Parc des Princes dugouts.
And then there will be their biggest foe, former Barcelona legend Lionel Messi, who will be coming up against his long-time rivals. Messi, who has waged many battles with Real Madrid during his times in Spain, is Barcelona’s record goalscorer. And though he has not been able to replicate that form at PSG, the match against Real will be motivation enough for him.
Sporting out to show they belong
Sporting Lisbon have made it to the Champions League knockout stage only once, in 2008/09, when they suffered a humbling 12-1 loss to Bayern (0-5 in Lisbon, 7-1 in Munich) — still the heaviest aggregate defeat in the competition. Thirteen years on, those wounds long since salved, Sporting face English champions Manchester City hoping for an upset win.
City, though, are out of the group stage for the ninth year running and have made it to at least the quarter-finals for the past four seasons.
Pep Guardiola’s side will be without Jack Grealish, who suffered an injury during the match against Norwich City and has not recovered yet. He will miss Tuesday’s match.
The midfielder was sidelined with a shin problem for the 4-0 win at Carrow Road and, whilst his condition has improved, he will not be ready for the trip to Portugal.
Gabriel Jesus, who has scored on all five of his appearances at this stage of the competition, and Cole Palmer are also unavailable for the first leg of their last 16 tie, with neither player recovering from the injuries which have kept them out in recent weeks.
“He (Grealish) is better, but for tomorrow he is not available al”ngside Cole Palmer and Gabriel,” Pep Guardiola was quoted as saying in the pre-match press conference by City’s official website.
City travel to Lisbon on the back of a superb run of form, having won 18 of their last 20 games in all competitions, with their only defeat coming against Leipzig in their final Champions League group stage match after qualification to the last 16 was already confirmed.
