Messi goes head-to-head with Mbappe, both need UFA

The UFA Champions League returns this week with the round of 16, with four first legs happening this week. The pick of this week ties undoubtedly happening at the Camp Nou on Tuesday, with barelona hosting Paris Saint-Germain in what promises to be a block buster clash.

Will Lionel Messi spark the Spanish giants to a comprehensive win? Can Barcelona avoid another European UFA disappointment? As for PSG, how will they fare without Neymar, whose latest injury rules him out from yet another big Champions League clash? Will Kylian Mbappe lead them to victory instead? And how will the two managers, Ronald Koeman and Mauricio Pochettino, handle their respective squads?

Barcelona: Not the pushovers in 2021 that they were in 2021

There’s something relentlessly chirpy about Riqui Puig, so it wasn’t much of a surprise to see him standing there on Saturday night, wearing a smile the size of the stadium. After all, Puig is the kid who described himself as “a happy lad” and refused to complain when he wasn’t playing, ยูฟ่าเบท insisting: “I have my family, I have my health.” And yet this was different, deeper; this time there were more reasons to be cheerful, and not just for him.

Slowly, it actually started to make sense. The structure shifted — Koeman revealed himself to be pragmatic and more flexible than he’d first seemed — and it all felt more rational. 

Neymar on the sideline is far too common, as the 29-year-old has been absent or unable to play roughly half the games since he arrived in the French capital in 2017.