After a rather good performance in the match aller (first leg game) made against Barcelona, will the Paris Saint-Germain have what it takes to create la grande surprise tonight, by beating the Catalans in the Quarter finals of the UEFA Champions League?

The task of les Parisiens already seems like coming out of a “Mission:Impossible” movie.

Not only because they will be taking on one of the best European teams, if not the best, but also because Messi‘s coéquipiers (team-mates) will have the major advantage of having the so-called “douzième homme“ (twelfth man) on their side.

If you are not too familiar with the latter term, then you should know that it’s not meant to be understood literally.

In fact, the expression of the “12th Man” refers to les supporteurs (the supporters), since Barcelona will this time have the luxury of playing à la maison (at home)!

Mais tout n’est peut–être pas encore joué (but maybe not everything is already decided.)

Speaking of the devil: Lionel Messi, the Argentinian superstar of football, may very well be missing tonight.

Indeed, the four-time world player of the year is said to be suffering from a serious blessure (injury.)

This means potential bad news for Barcelona: Messi could miss une mi-temps (a half-time), at best, or even le match en entier (the whole game…)

Qui sait (who knows)?

Whether they have to deal with the Messi factor or not, Paris Saint-Germain will in any case be counting big-time on its own superstar, le suédois (the Swedish) Zlatan Ibrahimović, who became Parisian as of l’année dernière (last year.)

Adding Ibrahimović to the team proved to be a brilliant move by PSG sporting director Leonardo (a very talented player who “did his time” with Brazil) and the shrewd Qatari president of PSG, Nasser Al-Khelaifi (who could certainly afford to foot the bill for such a purchase!)

Ibrahimović was just what the PSG squad seemed to be needing the most.

In the match aller (remember, it means the “first leg“, i.e. “round one“, which took place in Paris), Ibrahimović scored the first goal of the PSG (likely an offside position, but it was allowed), and was behind the action that awarded his team a second “miracle goal”, completely “legit” this time, à la toute dernière minute (at the very last minute) of the game!

Qui s’en souvient? (Who remembers it?)

A little “taste” of what PSG vs. Barcelona was like “back in the day” (1995), with a remarkable set of players like David Ginola, George Weah, and Bernard Lama for the PSG, Ronald Koeman and Gheorghe Hagi for Barcelona

Here are some typical French football comments:

– “Oh-la-la-la!” (0:40)

– “Ça chauffe, ça chauffe, ça chauffe!” (“It’s getting hotter!”, meaning “it’s getting closer to scoring a goal”) (2:00)

“Un but fantastique” (“a fantastic goal”) (4:15)