By DAN KARELL
Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Paris Saint-Germain host Lionel Messi and FC Barcelona (2:45pm, Fox Soccer Channel) in one of Tuesday’s first-leg matches of the quarterfinals of the UEFA Champions League.
Ibrahimovic was recently cleared of a red-card ban that would have ruled him out for the matches against Barcelona, but the French club’s leading scorer is now set to run at the heart of his former team. Barcelona’s last Champions League match was one for the ages, with Messi scoring two first-half goals, and the Spanish side coming back from a two goal deficit to win 4-2 on aggregate.
Bayern Munich are coming off their best win of the season, a 9-2 clobbering of Hamburg SV, and welcome in Juventus (2:45pm, Fox Soccer Plus/MSG Plus) to the Allianz Arena. Like Barcelona and PSG, both Bayern and Juventus are at the top of their domestic standings, and are far enough ahead to have rested players this past weekend, all for the purpose of facing each other mid-week.
Juventus showed their class last round with a 5-0 aggregate victory over Celtic. Bayern needed away goals to move on to the quarter-finals round, losing to Arsenal 2-0 at home, evening the tie on aggregate.
If you will be watching today’s action, please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.
Enjoy the action.