Barcelona will enter the second leg of their last-16 Champions League contest against PSG down 4-1. The French side won the first match 3-1 at Camp Nou.
However, Barca have been poor this season and haven't managed to win any of their last five games in all competitions. They are now without a victory in four matches and lie seventh in the league table - eight points behind leaders PSG.
Barca were hoping to reach the quarter-finals with a win but they will need to score because they are not playing well enough to claim a result that goes their way. However, a comeback is possible if they turn it around quickly.
The return game is on February 18. You can watch the match live online.
At least four goals are required for Barcelona. With such result, the aggregate score would be 4-4, but PSG would advance due to the away goals rule. This implies Barcelona will need at least four goals. A 4-0 victory on the night would send them through, while a 4-1 victory would send the tie to an extra tie.
However, if Barcelona win 3-1, they will secure their place in the next round with one match to spare. A draw will do enough for them to go through as long as Paris Saint-Germain fail to beat Lyon at home.
In other words, Barca must attack relentlessly from the first minute and never let up until the last. They must not worry about what might happen if they lose, because that is exactly what will happen if they don't score at least four times.
In the Round of 16, the team was defeated 5-2 on aggregate by PSG. FC Barcelona's participation in the 2020–21 UEFA Champions League has come to an end.
The club was drawn against French side Paris Saint-Germain in the round of 16 and lost both matches 1-0 at the Camp Nou and 3-1 (aet) away from home. This is the second consecutive season that Barça has been knocked out in the round of 16 after being beaten by Liverpool last year. With these results, the club is out of the Champions League for the first time since 2015-16.
Barcelona had a great start to their campaign by winning their first three games - two of them being at home. But they failed to win any of their next five games including one in the return leg against PSG at the Camp Nou. After the loss, Pep Guardiola resigned as manager. His resignation came just a few days before the quarter-final match against his former team Bayern Munich. He finished with a record of six wins, one draw and five losses.
This is not the first time that Barça has been knocked out in the round of 16. In the 2011-12 season, they were also beaten by Liverpool 2-4 on aggregate in the same stage.
Barcelona and PSG will play the first leg at Camp Nou on February 16, 2021, with the return match at Parc des Princes on March 10. It's the round's outstanding matchup, with Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe poised to square off, albeit Neymar will be missing due to injury.
Barcelona has lost four semi-finals in the UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League: in 1975-76, 1977-78, 1995-96, and 2000-01.
The repercussions from Barcelona's Champions League defeat, this time at the hands of PSG, continues a few days later. This time, it comes from former Barcelona player Rivaldo, who commented after the 4-1 defeat. Lionel Messi will leave Barcelona at the conclusion of the season to join PSG, according to the Brazilian striker.
After the game, Rivaldo was interviewed by American television channel NBC and when asked about his thoughts on the match he said: "I think Barca is going through a bad moment. I think Leo Messi is going to leave the club at the end of the season".
Barca's president, Josep Maria Bartomeu, did not deny the report but stated that there is no chance Messi would be leaving the club this summer. He said: "Rivaldo is a friend of mine and he's entitled to say what he wants but there's no chance that Leo will be leaving us this summer".
However, despite Bartomeu's denial, rumors continue to link Messi with a move to Paris Saint-Germain. In February, the French newspaper Le Parisien reported that PSG were ready to offer €10 million (£8.6 million) for the Argentine international. At the time, a source close to the club claimed that the report had no basis in fact but now it seems as though another big name has arrived on the market.
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