Christian Van Slyke

Most soccer fans have made Barcelona the clear favorites to advance to the semi-finals of the Champions League at the expense of Paris Saint-Germain over the two legs.

However, the current La Liga leaders may not have it all their own way when they meet for the first time at Parc des Princes on Tuesday night.

Team News

Paris Saint-Germain

PSG have not lost a European game at home for six years. They also have a coach in Carlo Ancelotti who has won the competition both as a player and a manager.

They will also have talisman Zlatan Ibrahimovic available for selection after the Swedish international's two-match suspension was reduced upon appeal.

FC Barcelona

Barcelona have been given a boost ahead of the trip to the French capital as Jordi Alba and Xavi are available.

The pair, who had been struggling with hamstring strains suffered on international duty with Spain, missed Saturday's 2-2 draw away to Celta Vigo.

Alba had been injured against Finland on March 22nd, while Xavi was hurt in Spain's game with France on March 26th.

When Bayern Munich and Juventus were paired together during the draw earlier this month, many tipped this Champions League quarter-final tie to be the one to watch out of the four that came out of the hat.

Right now, both of these teams hold comfortable advantages at the top of their respective leagues. Bayern Munich lead the Bundesliga by a massive 20 points, while Juventus are nine points in front of Napoli at the Serie A summit.

Team News

Bayern Munich

Apart from Barcelona, no side looks more potent -- sometime even more than the Spanish giants -- than Bayern. The likes of Thomas Muller, Franck Ribery, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Toni Kroos have been brilliant all season and will ask constant questions of the Juve backline.

Such is the strength of the squad, that coach Jupp Heynckes will have the luxury of calling the likes of Mario Gomez and Arjen Robben, who scored two goals at the weekend, from the bench.

Their defensive midfielder Javi Martinez, however, will take no part due to being suspended, with Luis Gustavo set to take the Spaniard's place in the starting lineup.

Preview

It's a quick turnaround for Manchester United-- in fact, their quickest of the season -- as they prepare to take on Chelsea tomorrow in a FA Cup quarter-final replay at Stamford Bridge. This will occur just 45 hours after the final whistle against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light. This tie has come about because of the 2-2 draw at Old Trafford three weeks ago -- a game in which the Reds blew an early two-goal lead and were fortunate not to lose after a brilliant David de Gea save at the death on a close-range Juan Mata attempt. The winner of the replay will face Manchester City in a semi-final clash at Wembley.

Team News

Manchester United

Sir Alex Ferguson is also likely to make several changes to his side after rotating the team in the weekend win at Sunderland. 

Phil Jones could return to the side at right-back after Rafael (groin) was forced off at the weekend. Tom Cleverley and Ryan Giggs are also likely to feature after sitting out Saturday's match.

Most football fans if not all know this name. Lionel Messi. The 25 year old youngster writes his name in the history book one more time, with only a few pages left, there is only a handful of record FIFA can come up with that Messi hasn't broken....yet. 

In the 73rd minute, it seemed that Messi would not get a chance to secure another record, so it seemed, but out of a brilliant pass to Tello, Messi found himself once again at the end of 'fruits of his labor'. Messi scored his 29th goal in 19 consecutive matches, and his 43rd in the league leaving Ronaldo 16 goals behind at 27 for the race to the Pichichi trophy. 

A milestone for Messi, as he has scored in 19th game straight, and every time he scores, he comes closer to breaking his own league record from last year where he gathered 50 goals in a season. With a dozen games left, Messi will definitely break his own record. 

Lionel Messi has now scored against every team in the league, only Ronaldo has 1 more since he scored an own goal on Madrid. 

Preview

Michael Dawson has challenged Tottenham to end their dismal losing streak and go on another unbeaten run to secure their place in next year's Champions League.

A 12-match unbeaten sequence towards the end of 2012 meant Spurs were odds-on to qualify for the Europe's top club competition, but defeats against Liverpool and Fulham mean Spurs are now in danger of blowing their chances for a second successive year.

A defeat at Swansea tomorrow, coupled with victory for Arsenal over Reading, will put the Gunners just one point behind their rivals with a game in hand.

Another loss tomorrow will also give Villas-Boas the unwanted tag of being the first Spurs boss since David Pleat in 2004 to preside over a four-match losing run.

The Portuguese manager was upbeat about his team's top-four prospects yesterday, though, and his captain echoed those sentiments today.

“Everyone was disappointed with the result against Fulham but that's behind us now and we have to push on again,” Dawson told Spurs TV Online.