Barcelona will be the favourites to progress after drawing Paris Saint-Germain, but Le PSG do have the players to cause the Catalans some damage. Barcelona's defence has been rather shaky this season for teams that are capable of actually laying a glove on them, and their opponents certainly possess all the firepower to pose a considerable threat.
Barcelona vs. Paris Saint-Germain, 2013 UEFA Champions League draw:
Paris Saint-Germain are underdogs against Barcelona, but the Catalans will have to be wary of the incredible firepower possessed by their opponents.
Nonetheless, in most other areas of the pitch, Barcelona outmatch their opponents and will be relying on doing what they always do - outplaying and outpassing the opposition to death. Paris Saint-Germain have a very good team, but it’s not quite at the level of Barcelona just yet - their best bet is probably going to be to do something like Milan did at the San Siro, while hoping they can make a better job of things in Spain.
Key player
Zlatan Ibrahimovic - Well, what were you expecting, David Beckham PSG will likely try and keep things tight and hope some of their attackers can grab a goal out of nothing, and Zlatan has been excelling at that for most of his career. It's only a slim hope, but if they can replicate AC Milan's first-leg showing, they may stand a chance. After all, Lucas Moura, Javier Pastore, Ezequiel Lavezzi and Zlatan Ibrahimovic are rather more potent than Stephan El-Shaarawy, Mabaye Niang, Kevin Prince-Boateng and Giampaolo Pazzini. And of all those, the Swede would probably most fancy the chance to score at his old club, where was rather unceremoniously booted out the door.
Matchup to watch
Javier Pastore vs. Sergio Busquets
Jordi Alba is an excellent player, but Barcelona have looked rather more vulnerable on the counter-attack since they started playing with two attacking full-backs. That will give PSG's attackers the chance to spring the counter-attack, with Lucas Moura and Ezequiel Lavezzi possessing the pace and trickery to do the job. If they can keep Barcelona out, then PSG's frontline is better at attacking than Barcelona's back four are at defending - so Sergio Busquets will have to make sure that his defence remain unexposed. His real opponent will be Javier Pastore, who will be looking to supply the passes to that dangerous forward line.
Prediction
Barcelona to win by one goal
If PSG can pull off a disciplined performance then they do have a chance of a remarkable victory, but it’s not what they’re used to. There will be goals here, for sure, but you sense that the Parisians are unlikely to come out of Camp Nou with anything other than a convincing defeat. It’s still too early for them to be going into a game against a club like Barcelona as equals. On the plus side, there will definitely be goals.
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