What to watch in UEFA Champions League: PSG vs. Barcelona could be a classic, Serie A need to recover, more

Hansi Flick’s free-scoring attack puts its 11-game winning run on the line against the reigning champions in a clash of Europe’s top contenders

The mad rush to the midpoint of the Champions League league phase continues apace. In the space of four weeks we will have gotten through three rounds of the competition, hitting the halfway mark and making up time after that elongated international break. It is a pivotal moment then in the Champions League's early exchanges — it's up to you to decide just how important the race for the top eight is in the overall direction of the competition — and this week certainly brings the big guns. Indeed, it is not hard to argue that Tuesday and Wednesday pit the four favorites for this competition against each other. On Wednesday it is the turn of the last two teams eliminated by champions Paris Saint-Germain to face off as Arsenal travel to Bayern Munich.

Before that, however, it's the turn of the holders against the team that might be the best placed to steal their continental crown. PSG vs. Barcelona. This is going to be a barn burner, right? First things first, we really need these two to face off when the stakes are high. In each of the last two seasons it has seemed European football has been locked on a collision course for a Barcelona-Paris Saint-Germain dust-up in the Champions League final. A meeting between two injury-addled versions