The Champions League round of 16 finally gets underway this Tuesday, with all eyes on a European clash of titans when PSG host Barcelona at 7.45pm on BT Sport 2!

There is perhaps something a bit off about Barcelona this season. Now, that is a bold claim to make about a side that haven’t lost a La Liga game since the start of October, are in the final of the Copa Del Rey and finished the Champions League group stages with the joint greatest points tally. Yet among their usual high-scoring high jinks – they just beat Alaves 6-0 – has been a tendency to drop points, with 5 of their last 11 league games draws. That leaves them in 2nd place, a point behind Real Madrid but with their rivals crucially having 2 games in hand.



Of course, one shouldn’t overstate Barca’s troubles. They have scored 61 goals in 22 games in La Liga, with Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez on 32 goals and 25 goals in all competitions respectively. Even more impressively 10 of Messi’s goals came in Europe, leaving him at a Super Mega PGM of 39-45 to Suarez’s 35-41.

As for PSG, they will be ruing the fact that drew with Ludogorets Razgrad in their final group stage game, handing Arsenal the top spot in the process. They are also showing signs of missing Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the league. While 2nd place with 50 goals scored is nothing to sniff at, that leaves them 3 points and a whopping 25 goals behind Ligue 1-topping Monaco. Edison Cavani remains their only consistent force up front, the Uruguayan at a Super Mega PGM of 39-45. That likely won’t be enough to stop the visitors, with Spreadex offering a slender Barcelona/PSG (h) Goal Supremacy spread of 0.2-0.4 alongside a Total Goals spread of 2.7-2.9.

Tuesday’s other Champions League fixture sees Borussia Dortmund travel to Benfica at 7.45pm on BT Sport 3. The Germans managed to top a group that featured Real Madrid, drawing both games against the Galacticos 2-2, and have ostensibly been rewarded accordingly. Europe has provided a salve for Dortmund’s lacklustre domestic season, where they sit in 4th place and 16 points off of the pace set by Bayern Munich. They do, at least, have the Bundesliga’s top scorer in the shape of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang; the Gabon forward, fresh off a disappointing African Cup of Nations, heads to Portugal at a Super Mega PGM of 41-48.



Benfica, meanwhile, scraped their way out of one of the weaker groups, finishing 2nd to Napoli and only a handful of points ahead of Besiktas and Dynamo Kiev. In the Primiera Liga they have fared better, sitting atop the table with a 1 point lead over Porto. Given the spottiness of the visitors’ form the hosts could nab a result, though our Spreadex traders fancy an away win, at a Borussia Dortmund/Benfica (h) Goal Supremacy spread of 0.2-0.4 alongside a Total Goals spread of 2.55-2.75.