The UEFA Champions League is back and as the world’s greatest club competition roars into 2023, we spoke to Bet9ja Ambassador Victor Ikpeba ahead of a mammoth clash as French champions PSG take on German champions Bayern Munich in a repeat of the 2020 final on Tuesday night!
VI: The last 16 draw has thrown up some very interesting ties both this week and next. Tuesday’s games look incredibly interesting with two of Europe’s heavyweights going head-to-head in Paris and two big clubs struggling domestically meeting at the San Siro.
We’ll start at the Parc des Princes where PSG face Bayern Munich in one of the games of the round! This one is going to be close and these type of encounters can be so difficult to predict especially at this stage of the competition. Lionel Messi is back at PSG as a world champion and we know there has been problems within the squad with the perception that Kylian Mbappe holds a lot of power causing apparent friction inside the camp coupled with rumours of Neymar wanting to re-join Barcelona.
Munich’s Main Mané Missing
Bayern however do not look like the same team we saw that were so dominant when they won the UEFA Champions League back in 2020 over PSG (although they did win six games from six in the group stages), a lot of players have left and Julian Nagelsmann has, at times, struggled to stamp his mark on Hansi Flick’s old side. Sadio Mané’s injury has been a big issue for the Bavarians since the return of the Bundesliga in January as they recorded three 1-1 draws in a row and he will miss Tuesday’s game so you’d wonder whether PSG’s firepower will be the difference and see them through to the quarter-finals?
Both sides sit on top of their domestic leagues, Bayern leading the Bundesliga by a single point from Union Berlin and PSG leading Ligue 1 by eight points from Marseille but they were knocked out of the Coupe de Monde by their biggest rivals last week. Messi has not stopped scoring since returning from the World Cup and I’d expect him to carry that form into the Champions League and PSG will feel this could be their best chance yet at glory in Istanbul in June.
With the abolition of the away goals rule in 2021 from all UEFA competitions it has reduced the importance of having the home game in the second leg but I always felt that it never really mattered anyway in this competition. We always saw a lot of times teams doing well away from home and do poorly at their own ground and my opinion is that when you play against German sides, you have to be really mentally prepared for a battle over two legs because it’s not just a “one game at a time” scenario.
When push comes to shove, I wouldn’t bet my money on this PSG side against this Bayern team and here’s why; to win this tournament you have to be absolutely ruthless and history suggests the French team just haven’t got that ability.
I’m worried about this PSG squad because, as I alluded to earlier, there appears to be a lot of distractions outside the team and I don’t know if they are truly capable of handling this pressure as a collective. On paper, with the quality of players the Parisians possess, who have won everything there is to win, you would say nothing should really stand in their way of reaching the promised land and yet, there’s this psychological barrier they need to get over to win the Champions League and that’s where they failed in recent years.
PSG vs History
Their collapse against eventual winners Real Madrid in last year’s round of 16 second leg showed that the weight of history is heavy on the shoulders of this group and against six time winners Bayern Munich they will need to overcome that hurdle once again.
It’s been fascinating to watch PSG over the last few years but you have to question the unity within the squad. Are they really together? Is there maybe too much individuality? Is having too many stars a problem?
There’s a reason why the Harlem Globetrotters didn’t play in the NBA.
