UCL: Paris St. Germain vs Borussia Dortmund Preview

 

Date: March 11, 2020

Kickoff time: 9:00 PM

Venue: Parc des Princes Paris, France.

Match Preview

We head into another day of the knockout stage in the champions league round as Paris St. Germain host Borussia Dortmund in the second leg of the round of 16 ties. The French outfit will be looking to overturn a deficit of 2-1 from their first leg outing as the german side secured a 2-1 win with goals from Elring Braut Haaland and Jadon Sancho with Neymar giving his team a consolation goal.

The sad news, however, is that the game will be played behind closed doors due to coronavirus outbreak across Europe as it was announced on Monday.

PSG boss was heavily criticised as he surprisingly opted for a three-man defence in the first leg and playing a false nine with the likes of Mauro Icardi, Edinson Cavani, Pablo Sarabia on the bench. With the reasons, best known to him whether tactical or based on the form remains unknown as the parisiens failed to replicate the structure shown in their domestic league to the Europe biggest competition.

The French capital outfit have failed to go past this stage of the competition for three seasons now, and they have once again found themselves in this stage yet, and they have yet another mountain to climb.

Borussia Dortmund, on the other hand, has won every of their game since their last meeting against PSG which includes a 2-1 win on Saturday over Borussia Monchengladbach which keeps them four points behind league leaders Bayern Munich on the Bundesliga table.

Dortmund has failed to progress in this stage of the competition since 2017 after their loss to Monaco they will, however, try to avoid a repeat as they look to progress to the round of 16.

Team News

Marco Verratti and Thomas Meunier are set to miss the game through suspension as they both received yellow cards in the first leg which will be a massive loss to the French side. Thiago Silva and Colin Dagba are also doubtful, but these are indications that the skipper will start the game.

Dortmund boss Lucien Favre won’t have many changes to make as we are going to see the same side that won the first leg

Prediction

PSG 3 – 1 Dortmund

 
 

Written by: Olumide Akinnifesi