Paris Saint-Germain Pay Price for Champions League Slip by Drawing Barcelona

Paris Saint-Germain have drawn Barcelona in a fiendishly difficult Champions League Round of 16 tie.
Having thrown away top spot in Group A on Matchday 6, Paris relinquished to chance to be selected to face England's ropey champions Leicester City.
Even a tricky-but-beatable Napoli would have been preferable, but fortune has handed Paris a nightmare draw which will serve as a painful lesson for their wastefulness.
That 2-2 draw at home to Ludogorets Razgrad looked a terrible result at the time, but the true cost was always only going to become apparent after this draw. 
Admittedly, Arsenal who usurped Paris atop their group, have fared little better in drawing Bayern Munich, but there were far kinder opponents available in the other half of the draw.
If Unai Emery is going to eclipse predecessor Laurent Blanc's high-water mark of three consecutive Champions League quarter-finals, he must first upset the odds against Barcelona.
The Catalans have knocked PSG out of Europe twice in the last four seasons. The Parisians have won just once in six meetings over that period, a 3-2 home victory in 2014.
Their most recent clash, in the 2014-15 quarter-final, saw the French champions hammered 5-1 on aggregate.
Adding to the weight of history is Emery's abysmal personal record against the Blaugrana.  The Spaniard has beaten Barcelona just once in 23 attempts as a manager.
To make matters yet worse, Luis Enrique's side are six points off the pace in LaLiga.
Unless Real Madrid slip uncharacteristically between now and February, Barcelona will likely be putting all of their considerable resources behind their European campaign.
PSG too, are well back in their domestic title race, but they will be expected to simultaneously pursue the Ligue 1 leaders and European glory. 
Barcelona vice president Jordi Mestretried to have it both ways in the aftermath of the draw, claiming his club's excellent record against PSG "doesn't guarantee anything," while admitting it "gives us confidence having achieved it the other times we've played."
They will enter the tie as heavy favourites.
It is an oft-repeated cliche that the best teams must be faced and defeated in order to win the European Cup. That is plainly nonsense.
If a simpler draw had been on offer, Paris would have taken it.
So too though, would Barcelona.
The Spanish champions have European pedigree PSG simply cannot match, and the world's greatest player in their lineup, but there are weaknesses in Luis Enrique's team.
Barcelona are a team that prefer to bring the ball inside.
Their most important players, Andres Iniesta, Sergio Busquets and Lionel Messi revel in the tight spaces of a packed midfield.
They are a team lacking in natural width, and that provides an opening for Paris.

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