The UEFA Champions League resumes tonight with two Round of
16 first leg matches on the cards.
The biggest clash of the night will be a repeat of the
quarter-final last year with Paris Saint Germain playing host to Premier League
club Chelsea. The Parisians finished second to Barcelona in Group F and were
drawn to face the Londoners who topped group G.
Laurent Blanc’s side have
become one of the Champions League core teams since the takeover by Qatar
Sports Investments in 2011. They lost only one match in their group, a 3-1
reversal against FC Barcelona while Jose Mourinho’s side finished their group unbeaten.
The Ligue 1 Champions however go into the match on crutches with
no less than five first-team players injured. Lucas Moura (hamstring), Yohan
Cabaye (groin), Blaise Matuidi (knee), Serge Aurier (thigh) and Marquinhos
(hamstring) could all miss the match having sustained injuries in a bizarre 2-2
draw with Caen on Saturday in a match they finished with 9 men.
Chelsea on the other hand had a restful weekend in which
only FA Cup matches were played – they were knocked out by Bradford in the
previous round. Mourinho will only be without Nigeria midfielder John Obi Mikel
with Diego Costa set to resume duties having missed the last three domestic matches
serving a suspension.
Chelsea old-boy David Luiz scored an own goal for the Premier
League leaders when they lost 3-1 to PSG before he made the switch to France.
However, the Blues won the latest clash with Demba Ba and Andre Schurrle both
netting in a 2-0 win at Stamford Bridge in April last year. The two goalscores
have already left the club.
In Ukraine, Shakhtar Donetsk play host to Bayern Munich who
couldn’t have had a better preparation for the clash than an 8-0 routing of
Hamburg SV.
The 2013 Champions face Shakhtar who haven’t played a competitive
match since December but they have this year’s Champions League leading
goalscorer Luis Adriano ready to fire them to glory. Pep Guardiola’s Bayern
have won only once in their last five visits to Ukraine, losing thrice while
drawing and losing the other two matches. However, they haven’t met Shakhtar in
any of those meetings.
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