Real Madrid secure last-16 Champions League spot with victory over Psg

Cristiano Ronaldo's side recorded a 1-0 victory over Paris Saint-Germain

WHILE Premier League clubs scraped their way towards the knockout stages, largely unheralded in England the battle between two potential winners of the trophy was taking place.

 

In an absorbing encounter, Paris Saint-Germain showed they may have the bravado to make Real Madrid sweat on their own turf but ultimately the Spanish giants are still cute enough to go all the way in the competition.

With old-school Champions League watchers scratching their heads at former tournament broadcaster ITV’s offering of All Star Mr & Mrs starring Tessa Sanderson, BT Sport Extra 2 was the place to be.

BT Sport trumpet the fact they cover every Champions League game and, as far as the rest of Europe was concerned, the one to be at was taking place at the Bernabeu.

Fans in England are buying into the idea that there is footballing life outside the Premier League. There is always, it seems, a Real Madrid or a Barcelona shirt among the more usual Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United ones at kickarounds in the park these days.

 

Zlatan Ibrahimovic failed to score at the Bernabeu Stadium

Even Bart Simpson, according to the oversized yellow figure posing for photographs at the stadium, is a ‘Merengue’.

For those interested in the beautiful game, the beauty is that last night’s clash was about the game – not touchline antics or the future of the managers. 

Money, obviously, still plays a part but only in establishing the narrative for yesterday. PSG are ‘new money’, and don’t the traditionalists who invented the concept of the Galactico hate it. 

A depressingly ordinary goalless draw in the Parc des Princes a fortnight ago was technically a good result for the Spaniards. However, at the Bernabeu there is no technically about it. 

The home side are expected to win. Not least against a side who have been sniffing around Madrid’s star player Cristiano Ronaldo and already boast former Real favourite – and Manchester United flop – Angel Di Maria. 

For the opening half-hour, most of the play came from cheeky upstarts PSG, with Zlatan Ibrahimovic twice going close. Then came a moment of what looked like fortune to the uninitiated. Toni Kroos’s wild shot deflected off Thiago Silva straight to Nacho, whose side-footed first-time finish scuttled past the stranded Kevin Trapp and inside the far post.

Lucky? Straight from the training ground if the giant tick that went into Rafa Benitez’s notebook was anything to go by.

PSG had their moments, Adrien Rabiot hitting the post and Ibrahimovic fluffing his lines when through on goal, but Real look set to top their group and, once again, to be the one to miss for those Premier League sides who fail to win their own.

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