Champions League: Ranking the round of 16 ties
By Ty Finch
1. Real Madrid vs. Paris Saint-Germain
What other tie could top these rankings? Real Madrid, current Champions League titleholders face off against Paris Saint-Germain, massive spenders in the summer transfer market who are tearing through just about every club they face. It’s the matchup most will choose to watch, and it’s almost a shame it had to come this early in the knockout rounds.
This tie would probably top the interesting rankings even if Madrid weren’t in somewhat of a crisis mode in La Liga. They sit in fourth place in the table behind Valencia, Atletico Madrid and Barcelona, and are only two points ahead of Villarreal in fifth. They recently lost to 12th-place Leganes in the Copa del Rey, and have been struggling mightily all season.
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PSG, on the other hand, are running away with Ligue 1. They’re currently 11 points ahead of Marseille in second, and have scored 75 goals in 24 games. Their record in the group stage proved to be similar, as they only lost once, to Bayern Munich in a match they didn’t need to win to top the group. Oh, and they scored 25 goals in six matches.
Early on in the group stages, this tie was billed as a possible final. The draw didn’t work out that way, but there’s a world-class player at every position on the pitch, including legends like Cristiano Ronaldo, Sergio Ramos and Neymar, as well as stars in the making like Isco and Kylian Mbappe. Now that there’s an added layer of crisis for Madrid, with Zinedine Zidane under pressure to make a run, there’s no doubting this is the tie to watch in the round of 16. It’s hard to see this not living up to the hype.