Paris Saint-Germain vs Barcelona 02-04-2013 Champions League

Paris Saint-Germain vs Barcelona
UEFA Champions League: quarterfinal
Date: 2 April, 2013 - 18:45 GMT
Stadium: Parc des Princes - Paris
Referee: W. Stark‎

 The Champions League Quarter Final draw sees PSG take on the mighty Barcelona. What a Champions League clash this will be! PSG plays a very organized form of football, but they have tremendeous firepower up front in Zlatan, Lavezzi and others. By now we all know how Barcelona plays. 

 PSG also have an impressive unbeaten home record in Europe that stretches way back to 2006, their last loss on home soil being against Hapoel Tel-Aviv in the UEFA Cup group stage. Ibrahimovic has been in deadly form in Ligue 1, smashing in 25 goals in 27 matches.
Messi has again scored at an astronomical rate, netting an unbelievable 43 goals in 29 league games and also contributing seven goals in eight Champions League encounters. In the last match Lionel Messi scored another goal and he became the first player to score in 19 successive Primera Division matches. That's 29 goals from his last 19 matches domestically and he's the first player to have ever scored against every other team in the competition consecutively.

PSG have opened up a 7 point gap at the top of Ligue 1 and look like winning their first title in 19 years!  Their recent form has been a bit mixed however with 2 wins in their 4 matches last month, along with a draw.  A 2-1 away win over Valencia gave them the advantage in the last round of the Champions League and they followed it up with a 1-1 draw at home to book their place here in the quarter finals.  They know to have any chance of progressing they need to take a lead from this leg to bring to Barcelona.

Barcelona are also clear at the top of their domestic league.  With a 13 point lead over Real Madrid they can put their full concentration on winning this tournament for the 3rd time in 5 seasons and cementing their place as one of the best club sides of all time.  They come into the game having dropped 2 points with a 2-2 away draw at Celta Vigo at the weekend thanks to an 88th minute goal from the hosts.  Barcelona will be worried about their defence against the attacking talents of PSG and will likely have to score if they want to take anything from the first leg.

PSG will be without midfielder Thiago Motta who is a big miss but thankfully for them Zlatan Ibrahimovic will return from suspension to lead the line.  They also rested a number of players during Friday's ligue 1 match to be fully prepared for this game.

Barcelona will welcome back Xavi and Jordi Alba who have been nursing injuries and also rested a number of stars including David Villa, Iniesta and Busquets.  They will be without Pedro however who is suspended.

 Possible line-ups:

 PSG (4-2-3-1): Sirigu; Jallet, Alex, Thiago Silva, Maxwell; Verratti, Matuidi; Lucas Moura, Pastore, Lavezzi; Ibrahimovic
Barcelona (4-3-3): Valdés; Alves, Piqué, Mascherano, Alba; Xavi, Busquets, Iniesta; Fabregas, Messi, Villa