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The kings of Europe set out to conquer Paris

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Real Madrid head to the Parc des Princes today  for their Champions League last-16 showdown with Paris Saint-Germain  , knowing anything better or equal to a one-goal defeat will see them through to the quarter-final stages of the competition for the eighth consecutive season. Naija News lernt

With a 3-1 deficit and without the influential Neymar, perennial French champions must throw the proverbial kitchen sink to dethrone the European champions. Since that 3-1 defeat, PSG have played four matches and scored 13 goals whilst conceding two while Real Madrid have scored 15 goals in five matches, losing 1-0 to Espanyol in that sequence.

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Despite the three goals conceded in Madrid on February 14, PSG conceded less than Zinedine Zidane’s side in this season’s Champions League and have also scored more though Neymar accounted for six of those goals. He, however, failed to score against Bayern Munich and Real Madrid in back-to-back 3-1 away defeats after recording goals in five consecutive UCL matches.

With the enforced absence of their talisman, Zidane believes another player [maybe former Los Blancos, Angel Di Maria] can replace Neymar for the French champions.

“Neymar’s absence makes no difference to us. In his place, there’ll be another player who wants to show what he can do. It may change something in the game, but not in terms of our preparation.”

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Head to head

14/02/18    UCL     Real Madrid   3 – 1       PSG

28/07/16    ICC     Real Madrid   1 – 3       PSG

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03/11/15    UCL     Real Madrid   1 – 0       PSG

21/10/15    UCL     PSG           0 – 0       Real Madrid

02/01/14    CLF      PSG          0 – 1       Real Madrid

Real Madrid defender, Marcelo, has  also said that his Brazil teammate Neymar, will have a speedy recovery from a foot operation. He expressed confidence that the Paris Saint-German forward will play at this summer’s World Cup.

 

Speaking ahead of Real Madrid Champions League clash against PSG, Marcelo said “Neymar knows that people are with him, that Brazil is with him.

“The situation is complicated but I’m certain that Brazilians and the whole world are sending positive energy so that he comes out of this one.

 
“He is going to have time to recover, he is going to arrive to the World Cup. I’m certain he will return much stronger than he was before. I also send him all the positive energy and a kiss.”

Marcelo suffered the same injury as Neymar while training with the Selecao in October 2012 and was sidelined for three months.

He added, “When you suffer a serious injury like this you see things differently and you begin to focus on other things that before you didn’t notice.

“It’s as though a film goes through your mind. These are times when you learn many things and you work a lot more as you cannot leave your house.

 
“When you are out for so long and you are in so much pain, you begin to get bored. You start to think: ‘I need to work like this or like that so as to not to get injured again, go to bed early, eat better etc.'”