When the Champions League draw was made initially, Paris Saint-Germain were put next to Manchester United, and the footballing world got excited to see the reunion of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo on the football field. However, after noticing the errors made while making the redraw, United ended up drawing Atletico Madrid, which meant PSG will be facing Messi’s fiercest rival, Real.
Talking about the fixture, Los Blancos midfielder Toni Kroos mentioned that these are the kind of games they look out for and is pretty eager for the matchday to arrive. Although he didn’t mention anything particularly about his former El Clasico rival Messi, he spoke about the incredible amount of quality available on the pitch.
“We have a very interesting opponent for the next round. I think they’re the toughest rival of the five that we could have drawn. But these are the games for which we play football. We look for these games, with a lot of quality on the pitch. Let’s see what happens – at the end of the day we’re Madrid.
The most important thing now is to continue doing what we’re doing in these next matches before Christmas, to continue winning important points that bring us closer to our goal of winning La Liga at the end of the season,”
the German said.
Real Madrid are a 13-time winner of the most prestigious club competition in the world, but since Cristiano’s departure in 2018, they have struggled to make their mark in the competition. They made it to the semi-final last season, but ended up losing the two-legged tie to the eventual champions Chelsea.
Under Carlo Ancelotti, who led the side to their 2014 triumph in this tournament, Real finished top of their group which also included 2010 champions Inter Milan. Both PSG and Real Madrid have established their supremacy in the league title chase in their respective countries, with the Galacticos eight points clear at the top, whilst Pochettino’s men are 13 points ahead.
PSG and Real Madrid last met in the competition in 2019/20, where Angel Di Maria starred for the Parisian club in the opening group game to help them win 3-0, and snuck a 2-2 draw at the Bernabeu. Their last meeting in the knockout stages finished with Real Madrid winning both home and away legs in Ronaldo’s last season, in 2017/18.
