Club Football's biggest club competition was back after a two month winter break as the knockout stages of the UEFA Champions League kicked off on Tuesday with a mouth watering Round of 16 tie between FC Barcelona and Paris Saint Germain.
These two are no strangers to one another. Their meeting at the very stage,4 years ago in 2017 created history as FC Barcelona completed the "La Remontada"(The Comeback) as they shocked PSG and all the world when they comeback from a first leg 4-0 deficient in Spain to win the game 6-1 with the last kick of the ball to make it 6-5 on aggregate and advance through to the next stage. Till date this is the biggest deficient any team has recovered from.
Obviously times have changed. At the end of that season,Neymar who scored two important goals in that game(88' free kick,90+1' Penalty) and setted up Sergi Roberto(90+5') to win the game, switched sides and transferred to Paris Saint Germain. Luis Suarez who opened the scoring in the 3rd minute is now slamming goals for Atletico while club Legend Andres Iniesta who had a major part in the 2nd goal is now playing at Japanese club Vissel Kobe.
When the draw for the RO16 was made, fans were eager to see the return of Neymar to Camp Nou. Unfortunately though he picked up an injury last week and missed the game. He might even miss the second leg. Meanwhile Barcelona who have had their own problems to sort, both on and off the pitch.
Barcelona's last Champions League knockout game still gives nightmares to the club faithful as they were demolished 8-2 by eventual winners Bayern Munchen. PSG were trying to do one better and go on to win this season's competition after they slumped up to a 1-0 defeat in the final against Bayern.
After some openings exchanges, the talking point of the game came in the 26th minute when Barca midfielder Frenkie De Jong went down in the box through an accidental touch by Layvin Kurzawa. It looked a bit harsh but the decision stood and Lionel Messi slammed the penalty into the top right hand corner to make it 1-0.
The lead didn't last long as one of the rising stars of future Kylian Mbappe used his quick feet to lash on the ball from Marco Verrati at the near post to grab an important away goal and make it 1-1 in the 32nd minute.
Mbappe added a second goal to his tally to make it 2-1 in the 65th minute after he blasted the ball in from close range. 5 minutes later Paredes whipped in a free kick which was headed in by Moise Kean to make it 3-1 and eventually kill the game off.
Mbappe then grabbed home the matchball in the 85th minute when he curled his shot into the top right hand corner to make it 4-1 for the visitors. A quick break away saw PSG being 3 on 2 with Barca defenders and Julian Draxler made no mistake in picking his pass as Mbappe did the rest.
Barcelona did came back from 4-0 down in 2017 but this one is more tough. They are 4-1 down in the tie with PSG having 4 away goals to their advantage. They now have less than 1% chance to pull off another La Remontada in Paris in three weeks time.
Other RO16 result-
RB Leipzig 0-2 Liverpool
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