What's the story?
The knockout stages of the Champions League will take place next month with Spanish teams hoping to continue their domination in Europe. Real Madrid and Barcelona are, as always, deemed as the favourites to win the big prize in May. The first leg of the round of 16 matches are set to be played on the 15th and 16th February with the Catalans playing on the 15th followed by their eternal rivals on the next day.
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With the two sides playing their league games in the weekend before their European games, Barcelona have had their game against Alaves rescheduled by La Liga with some help from Real Madrid which will make the Catalans' travel to Paris a bit easy.
In case you didn't know...
Barcelona qualified for the knockout phase after being the winners of Group C followed by Manchester City. They won five out of their six group games with one loss coming against Pep Guardiola's City at the Etihad.
Meanwhile, despite going unbeaten throughout the group games, Real Madrid finished second in their group with Borussia Dortmund occupying the top spot. Real face Napoli in the round of 16 whereas Barcelona face Ligue 1 champions Paris Saint-Germain.
The heart of the matter
The La Liga hierarchy has swapped the fixtures of Real and Barcelona in game week 22 to allow more time to the reigning Spanish champions. Luis Enrique's men face PSG on Tuesday. This decision was taken to give the Catalans more time to prepare for their away game.
Madrid were earlier in line to play Osasuna at 16:15 CET on Saturday, 11 February while Barcelona travelling to the Basque county, Alaves on the same day to play at 20:45, later that day.
The Barcelona board had asked the league authorities for a change in match timings with La Liga then swapping the timings of Real and Barcelona games. This move will ensure Enrique's men arrive back in Barcelona at a reasonable hour and can train the next morning before leaving for Paris.
Sportskeeda's take
La Liga have always taken steps to ensure their teams get utmost help from the governing body which can help the teams perform well in Europe. That decision has gone in their favour recently with the Spanish giants dominating every European tournament and award ceremonies in recent seasons. The decision to award Barcelona extra three-four hours before they fly to Paris may actually help the Catalans.
