MY ACCOUNT
The Champions League returns on Tuesday as the round of 16 gets underway, and what a way to kick things off.
Paris Saint-Germain host Real Madrid in what is widely considered to be the tie of the round, with particular interest in PSG duo Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe for differing reasons.
Sporting welcome Manchester City to the Estadio Jose Alvalade in the other first-leg encounter, with Ruben Amorim’s men hoping to spring a surprise against the champions of England.
What do the numbers say about the opening games of the Champions League knockout stage, though? We take a look to decipher who is likeliest to come out on top.
Paris Saint-Germain vs Real Madrid
Real Madrid have a slight edge over PSG in their 10 previous meetings in European competition, having won four and lost three.
The French side lead 2-1 in the head-to-head in the knockout stages, eliminating Madrid from the 1992-93 UEFA Cup quarter-final and the 1993-94 Cup Winners’ Cup quarter-final.
The last meeting between the two came in the group stage of the 2019-20 Champions League, a 2-2 draw at the Santiago Bernabeu.
PSG won the previous game at Parc des Princes 3-0 and ultimately finished five points ahead of Madrid in Group A.
Los Blancos did win their last Champions League knockout game in Paris, beating PSG 2-1 in the round-of-16 second leg in 2017-18.
PSG will hope to improve their home record, having won just one of their past six such Champions League knockout games, a run including four defeats.
Since the start of the 2020-21 campaign, Mbappe – who is being linked with a move to Madrid when his contract expires at the end of the season – has been involved in more open-play sequences ending in goals (17) than any other player in the Champions League.
He also has the highest expected goals sequence involvement of any player in this period (16.4).
Mbappe’s France team-mate Karim Benzema, who is battling to be fit for the game, has found the net in each of his past four outings in the Champions League.
Should he do so again on Tuesday, he will become just the third player to score in five consecutive appearances for Madrid in the competition, after Cristiano Ronaldo (four times, between 2013 and 2018) and Ruud van Nistelrooy in 2007.
The Spanish giants won all three of their away games in the group stage without conceding a goal.
The only previous Champions League campaign in which they won their first four away games was in 2014-15, during Carlo Ancelotti’s first spell in charge.
Sporting vs Manchester City
Sporting and City have only ever faced each other twice in European competition, which was their two legs in the round of 16 in the 2011-12 Europa League, with the Portuguese side going through on away goals.
City have only won once in their past six matches in Portugal (D2 L3), including their 1-0 defeat in last year’s Champions League final to Chelsea in Porto.
This will be just the second time Sporting have played in the Champions League round of 16, with the previous occasion seeing them lose 12-1 on aggregate to Bayern Munich in 2008-09, the largest aggregate defeat in the competition’s history.
City have kept just one clean sheet in their previous 11 matches in the Champions League and conceded at least once in all six group games this season.
Still, should they win this game, Pep Guardiola’s team will be the first in Champions League history to win five consecutive away games in the knockout stages.
Sporting boss Amorim, at 37 years and 19 days old, will be the second-youngest Portuguese coach to take charge of a Champions League knockout-stage tie after Andre Villas-Boas (34 years and 127 days) with Chelsea against Napoli in 2011-12.
Villas-Boas was sacked prior to the second leg.
Among Portuguese players, only Ronaldo (six goals) has been directly involved in more Champions League goals this season than Sporting’s Pedro Goncalves (five – four scored, one assisted) and Manchester City’s Joao Cancelo (five – two scored, three assisted).
Saturday’s 4-0 win at Norwich was the first time Riyad Mahrez has failed to score for City since early December.
The first of his seven-game scoring run was the final Champions League group clash, a 2-1 defeat at RB Leipzig.
Mahrez has also scored nine goals in his past 10 appearances in the Champions League and has been directly involved in six goals in his most recent six games in the knockout rounds (four scored, two assisted).
Since the start of last season, Mahrez has scored at least four goals more in the competition than any other City player (Gabriel Jesus is next with five).
