PSG take on Bayern in an intriguing fixture
Paris Saint-Germain take on Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena on Wednesday in an intriguing quarterfinal fixture. Both teams have had their problems this season and will need to work hard to win this game.
Paris Saint-Germain are not having the best campaign at the moment and face intense competition from Lille, Monaco, and Lyon in the Ligue 1 title race. The French champions did a number on Barcelona in the round-of-16 and will be intent on a similar result this week.
Bayern Munich have not been as clinical as they were last year but have still been a force to reckon with this season. The German giants have excellent players in their ranks and hold a slight upper hand going into this game.
Bayern Munich have a good record against Paris Saint-Germain and have won four matches out of a total of six games played between the two teams. Paris Saint-Germain have managed two victories against Bayern Munich and can potentially trouble their opponents in this fixture.
The previous meeting between these two teams took place in the UEFA Champions League final last year and ended in a 1-0 victory for Bayern Munich.
Bayern Munich have excellent players at their disposal and the likes of Thomas Muller and Serge Gnabry will have to step up to the plate in the absence of the talismanic Robert Lewandowski. The Bavarians have been impressive in recent weeks and will want to make the most of their purple patch this week.
With Neymar back in the squad, Paris Saint-Germain will want to bounce back from their defeat against Lille and prove a point in this fixture. Both teams have potent attacking weapons in their ranks and are likely to share the spoils in this match.
Credit: sportskeeda.com
Chelsea set to overcome Porto
Chelsea will still be reeling from their stunning defeat at home to West Brom at the weekend, but they have the perfect chance of making amends when they face Porto in Seville in this Champions League quarter final first leg.
Porto knocked out Juventus, Cristiano Ronaldo and all in the last round, but it came at a cost with key men Mehdi Taremi and Portuguese midfielder Sergio Oliveira both suspended.
The London club’s weekend setback was their first defeat in 16 games to be fair and they looked a class act when they eliminated Atletico Madrid with ease after home and away victories in the last round.
Porto are lagging seven points behind leaders Sporting Lisbon having played a game more in the Portuguese League and have reserved their best performances for Europe.
But Porto – who haven’t reached a semi-final of this tournament since they won it under Jose Mourinho in 2004 – face a tough task having lost home advantage for their first leg.
The sides are familiar foes in European competition – they have played eight times in the past 16 years with Chelsea winning five of those games. Chelsea won the last meeting between the side in 2015 at Stamford Bridge with a 2-0 victory, although Porto had won the home clash 2-1. Credit: mrfixitstips.co.uk
North Korea to skip Tokyo Olympics over Covid-19 fears
North Korea has announced it will not take part in the Tokyo Olympics this year, saying the decision is to protect its athletes from Covid-19.
The decision puts an end to South Korea’s hopes of using the Games to engage with the North amid stalled cross-border talks.
In 2018, both sides entered a joint team at the Winter Olympics which led to a series of historic summits.
Pyongyang says it has no cases of the virus but experts say this is unlikely.
The country’s health system is thought to be completely inadequate for dealing with the Covid pandemic, the BBC’s Tokyo Correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes reports.
The announcement makes North Korea the first major country to skip the delayed 2020 Games because of the pandemic. The event is due to begin on 23 July.
This will be the first time North Korea has missed a Summer Olympics since 1988, when it boycotted the Seoul Games during the Cold War.
Pyongyang’s decision was made at an Olympic committee meeting on 25 March, according to a report by the state-run site Sports in the DPRK.
However, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said it had not “received an official application” from North Korea to step back from the Games.
It added that despite repeated requests, the country’s National Olympic Committee had failed to “hold a telephone conference during which the Covid-19 situation in North Korea should also have been discussed”.
North Korea has taken stringent measures against the virus since it broke out last year.
It shut its borders in late January and later quarantined hundreds of foreigners in its capital.
Since early last year, trains and wagons have been forbidden to enter or leave North Korea, with most international passenger flights stopped as well.
There were hopes from South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in that the Games could be a catalyst for progress between both Koreas.
Meanwhile, in Japan, an Olympic preparatory event was cancelled after Covid infections broke out at a training camp for the Japanese water polo team – with seven people testing positive for the virus.
Credit: BBC
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