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Stadium: Estadio se Mestalla
Referee: Paolo Tagliavento
Kick-off: 1:15 AM (IST), Wednesday, 13th of February
League leading Paris Saint Germain travel to Spain to take on Valencia at the Mestalla in what promises to be a cracking contest at the resumption of the Champions League with its knockout stages. While the visitors have performed at par with expectations thus far in the season, Valencia have struggled to cope with the La Liga as well as they have in recent seasons, and currently sit in fifth spot, below Malaga.
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In the group stage, however, Els Taronja recorded wins in every game they played, except for their fixtures against Bayern Munich, and ended up qualifying in second place, level on points with the German giants. The Parisian club did even better though, winning five of their games, and qualifying top of their group.
Valencia: L D W D W
In spite of a seemingly mediocre run of results, Valencia have actually been in fairly good form lately, winning two of their last games and drawing the other two. The draws have come against Real Madrid and Barcelona, and both at the Mestalla, meaning that Ernesto Valverde’s men will be brimming with confidence ahead of tonight’s game. Valencia have managed to score in every one of those fixtures, but have only kept one clean sheet, while they also conceded 5 against Real Madrid in the game preceding the previous four. Thus, their biggest concern will be keeping PSG from scoring an away goal, or more, as it could very well prove to be too big a deficit to overturn in the reverse fixture.
PSG: W W W W W
The Qatar-owned club have been in unstoppable form of late, as they have been all season, and will be looking at progressing far into the Champions League in their maiden knock-out stage appearance since the ’94 – ’95 season. They have won all five of their most recent fixtures, having scored 12 goals in the process, with at least 3 scored on three different occasions. Ibrahimovic, Lavezzi, and Matuidi were all rested for the weekend fixture against Bastia, and should be fresh and raring to go against Valencia. The absence of Thiago Silva in defence hasn’t made a huge difference to Carlo Ancelotti’s side in recent times, but they will certainly miss his European experience.
Valencia: None.
PSG: Thiago Silva, Thiago Motta.
Roberto Soldado
Almost single-handedly carrying the Valencia attack at times, Soldado has continued to make a case for consistent selection for the national side, especially with the floundering form of Fernando Torres. 11 league goals and 2 assists are an impressive record for a striker playing for any club, and achieving it while often playing as a lone striker underlines Soldado’s abilities. European competition has been where Soldado has really shone this season though, with 4 goals and an assist in his five group stage games, and he shall certainly be looking to cause further damage in the knock-out stages.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Even Soldado’s impressive numbers pale in comparison to Ibrahimovic’s 21 league goals and 5 assists for the season, indicating that he has taken well to being the focal point of his team’s attacks. Europe has also been very productive hunting ground for the Swedish striker, who has scored 2, and set up a further 5 goals in the group stages this season. This, in addition to the fact that Valencia have a tendency of conceding free kicks close to their penalty area, means that Zlatan will be on high alert to give his team a first-leg advantage to take home from tonight’s fixture.
A good game of football from two well balanced teams. While PSG may have a tendency to rely on Ibrahimovic for their goal-scoring needs, there is no questioning the fact that the rest of their team is a good mix of utility players and star performers alike. Thus, they should prove to be a good match for Valencia who have proven in recent seasons that they are no pushovers when it comes to European football. In terms of interesting numbers, the hosts for tonight only conceded 5 goals in the group stages, lesser even than Bayern Munich, while the visitors conceded only 3. Thus, one would perhaps be disappointed if a goal feast is what they look forward to.
