As expected, both Newcastle United and Paris Saint-Germain took care of their respective Round of 16 matchups, which means that one of those two will be facing us next, in the quarterfinals. (And the team who don’t play against us will in turn face Barcelona instead.)
Newcastle were never really threatened as they demolished Qarabag, 6-1 in the first leg, away, before sauntering to a 3-2 win at St. James’ Park last night in the second leg.
PSG, on the other hand, had plenty of problems with fellow
Ligue 1 outfit AS Monaco, who jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first leg in the Principality before managing to lose 2-3, then brought it back to even on aggregate in Paris, before against conceding a couple second-half goals to seal their fate. A goal in stoppage time made for an exciting finish, but PSG would survive, 5-4 on aggregate.
Should we prefer a rematch from the Club World Cup final? Or should we prefer to face a team below us in the Premier League? I’m almost leaning towards the former. St. James’ Park is a scary place.
The draw for the quarterfinals (and the rest of the remaining knockout bracket) will be made on Friday.
