Bayer Leverkusen face an uphill task in tomorrow's Champions League tie against French leaders PSG at the BayArena in Germany.
The German side has lost 4 of its last 6 matches, including getting knocked out of the German Cup by second division side Kaiserslautern, losing 2-1 to Schalke 04 in the Bundesliga over the weekend, and have lost any hope of claiming the title from Bayern Munich.
PSG are doing extremely well in Ligue 1, currently topping the league with a 5-point lead over closest rivals Monaco. Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been in outstanding form for the French champions, netting his 19th goal of the season in the 3-0 win over Valenciennes last weekend.
Sami Hyypia's men had to resist strong competition from Shakhtar Donetsk to qualify from Group A, and their last home game in Europe was a nightmare: a 5-0 defeat to Manchester United. PSG however, qualifed with ease, scoring 12 goals in their first 3 games and ensuring qualification with 2 games to spare.
Leverkusen will be encouraged by the fact that they have never lost a European game to a French side, and PSG are prone to arrogance and complacency, as seen in their draw with Anderlecht and loss to Benfica in their final group games.
KICK-OFF: Tuesday, 18th February, 2014. 7:45pm
PAST MEETINGS: This is the first meeting between the two sides in a competition
PLAYERS: PSG will be delighted with the goal-scoring record of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who has already scored 8 goals in just 6 matches in the Champions League this season. They will however feel the absence of summer signing Edinson Cavani who is ruled out with a thigh injury. Leverkusen will be without Emre Can (suspension) and Sebastian Boenisch (back injury).
ODDS: PSG will be traveling to Germany expecting to run over Leverkusen and show their dominance in Europe. All the signs point toward a PSG win with Leverkusen in terrible form lately, so yeah, I'm gonna go for PSG in this one. Don't forget to leave your own predictions in the comments section.
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