UEFA Champions League: PSG vs. Barcelona Preview, Odds, Prediction

Is it possible to see a miracle at Parc des Princes? We’ll find that out tomorrow night when the second leg of the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 between PSG and Barcelona ends. The Saints have a massive lead from the first meeting at Camp Nou, and they aren’t ready to experience another shocking elimination from Blagurana’s hand. The turbulence in Barca are hopefully over with the new president being elected on Sunday night. They are now hoping to enter a new era, equally successful to the one when this side dominated Europe.

Preview

PSG (+130) is solid lately, having three wins in a row, all on the road and all without a goal conceded. They have six clean sheets in the past 10 games, with eight victories and two defeats, with the latest one being at home to Monaco in the derby of the French Ligue 1.

It is one of the reasons why the Saints plan to be 100% focused against Barcelona, and the other is that 6-1 defeat from a few years ago once PSG suffered arguably its most painful loss in history.

The attacking part of the crew is in solid shape, scoring eight times in these three triumphs, and even though Neymar won’t appear in Wednesday’s game, Pochettino isn’t worried. Mbappe and the rest of the company are on fire, especially the youngster who demolished Barca in Spain.

Barcelona (+170) endured the last loss against PSG. After that match, they had one more slip, also at home against Cadiz, 1-1, and ever since posted four wins without a single goal allowed.

At first, Koeman’s boys beat Elche 3-0, then Sevilla twice, and Osasuna in this weekend’s La Liga match. One victory vs. Sevilla was in the league, 0-2, and the other in the rematch of the Copa del Rey competition, in which Barca overcame a 0-2 deficit from the first meeting to eliminate the rivals after extra times, 3-0.

What is a big problem for the Spanish titans is that their attack misses too many chances, especially Ousmane Dembele, whose finishing is terrible.

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Neymar isn’t available, the same as Keane and Bernat. This means that Icardi starts in the attack along with Mbappe.

Coutinho, Ansu Fati, Pique and Sergi Roberto are all out for the guests, who got used to having numerous troubles with injuries this year.

Head to Head Games

You remember that the last time these two sides met in UCL knockout stage, PSG won 4-0 in Paris and then lost in Barcelona 6-1. This time, the French champs were ruthless at Camp Nou, trashing the hosts, 1-4, with Mbappe’s hat-trick. What is even worse for the Spaniards is that they took the lead after Messi converted a penalty.

Prediction

Barcelona will try to make a miracle, and that would provoke a high efficiency in this match. The visiting side will have to attack and pressure the rivals, whose attack is lethal in such circumstances. They are arguably the team with the fastest transition in entire Europe, due to Mbappe mostly. Our first choice would be over 2.5 goals with the odds at -210 right now, and the second PSG to win +130.