Paris Saint-Germain Vs. Barcelona: Host Efforts To End Champions League Curses

JAKARTA - The French League champions are competing with the Spanish League champions to fight for the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals, when Paris Saint-Germain welcomes Barcelona at the Parc des Princes Stadium, Paris, on Wednesday, April 10 or Thursday morning WIB.

Luis Enrique reunited with his former club after successfully bringing his team through a 4-1 aggregate win over Real Sociedad in the round of 16, while La Blaugrana won 4-2 over Italy champions Napoli.

Nine years after lifting the European trophy with Barcelona, Enrique was in five games to end the painful curse of the Champions League for PSG, while giving the best parting gift to Kylian Mbappe.

Although the round of 16 against Real Sociedad was not expected to cause too many problems for Les Parisiens, Enrique's team won two wins with a score of 2-0 and 2-1 over Imanol Alguacil's men, where Mbappe scored three of PSG's four goals in both legs.

However, after continuing to receive questions about Mbappe's replacement in the previous match, Enrique added to the heat of the atmosphere by immersing him on the bench for the Ligue 1 match over the weekend against Clermont, who magically took the lead until the 85th minute at the Parc des Princes before Goncalo Ramos saved the situation.

Despite failing to beat the worst team in the French league, PSG have already claimed their winning status - 10 points ahead at the top of the table with six games remaining - and goal savers Ramos at the end of last weekend extended their unbeaten streak in all competitions to 27 matches.

Les Parisiens' last defeat came on a visit to AC Milan on a Champions League trip in November, and there's no need to say more about the hosts' tendency to collapse at the European level, one of which Enrique saw when he was Barcelona's manager seven seasons ago.

Barcelona's outstanding 6-1 win over PSG in the 2016-17 season was not followed by sparklingness in the Champions League, but guests have now returned to the quarter-finals for the first time since the 2019-20 season.

On the occasion, Bayern Munich crushed their opponents with a score of 8-2, but Barcelona traveled relatively briefly to Paris with high enthusiasm, and with Xavi's announcement that he would step down at the end of the season.

Since throwing his retirement bombings after a 5-3 defeat to Villarreal in January, Xavi has led his team in a streak of 11 unbeaten matches in all competitions, including a 3-1 win over Napoli in the second leg of the last 16 after a 1-1 draw in Italy.

The success of the Partenopei marked a second win of four consecutive wins for La Liga champions ahead of a visit to Paris, as Barca beat Mallorca, Atletico Madrid, and Las Palmas in their last three La Liga games, guarding three clean sheets at once.

An eight-point gap into the top of the Spanish League standings. Real Madrid, with eight games remaining may not be overtaken by Barcelona, but PSG is well aware that the Blaugrana has a sweet track record when facing pressure.

However, their meeting of two legs in the last 16 of the 2020-21 season ended with a landslide 5-2 victory for the French team that ended Lionel Messi's farewell; Barcelona can now take revenge by giving the same treatment to Mbappe who will join Real Madrid next season.

Estimated Lineup Of Players

Paris Saint-Germain: Donnarumma; Zare-Emery, Marquinhos, Skriniar, Mendes; Lee, Ugarte, Vitinha; Dembele, Ramos, Mbappe

Barcelona: Ter Stegen; Kounde, Cubarsi, Araujo, Cancelo; De Jong, Gundogan, Lopez; Yamal, Lewandowski, Raphinha