Wednesday’s games will kick off simultaneously at 2:45 p.m. Eastern, which — as usual — is just a pain for viewers who wouldn’t mind watching both games. (Note to UEFA: Learn a little something from the N.C.A.A. tournament and the N.F.L. playoffs and stagger your starts, especially since neither result affects the other. The global viewing audience and I thank you.)
To stall until game time, a quick lookahead (for those who spent the past 10 days on the moon, P.S.G. and Barcelona tied in the first leg, 2-2, in Paris, and Bayern Munich won at home, 2-0, over Juventus):
Barcelona should be favored against
P.S.G., what with two away goals in the bag and the power of a packed Camp Nou crowd filling its sails. But not by a lot, and probably by even less if the lineups are announced and Lionel Messi isn’t in Barca’s. Messi, who left the first leg at halftime after injuring his hamstring, is remarkably durable for a little guy who gets kicked around by larger men for a living. But even though
he practiced Tuesday and the team
sounded hopeful he would play, a hamstring is kind of a valuable tool for a soccer player, and you really need two good ones to do what Messi does. Plus, let’s be honest: Barcelona meandered a bit after losing him in Paris. “We have a better chance if Messi doesn’t play,” P.S.G. Manager Carlo Ancelotti said in the biggest understatement in soccer history, “but it won’t change our strategy.” And why should it? That strategy almost worked at home, when counterattacks led by Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Javier Pastore and Ezequiel Lavezzi and Lucas Moura tormented Barcelona’s soft spot, its back four and goalkeeper Victor Valdes. And Messi isn’t Barcelona’s only lineup concern: Pedro and Adriano also face Wednesday fitness tests, Javier Mascherano is hurt
and suspended, and Carles Puyol is still out with a knee injury. The French defender Eric Abidal has been included in Barcelona’s roster only days after playing his first game since his liver transplant last April. Seeing him take the field could be a special moment, but it probably wouldn’t be a good sign for Barcelona if it had to go that deep into its bench for a game of this magnitude.
Bayern Munich has been to two of the past three Champions League finals, and a third in four years seemed a realistic possibility from the opening minute of its 2-0 victory in the first leg. Yes, David Alaba’s goal went in with the help of a deflection after only 25 seconds, but the fact that the Germans were the better team that day was never in dispute. With
the Bundesliga title theirs as of Saturday, Bayern Munich can now focus on the goal that has driven them since losing the final at home last spring: winning the Champions League title. It would take a brave fan to bet against them now.
Juventus has not been to the semifinals in 10 years, and it didn’t make a return any more likely by being rolled in Munich last week. “I’m convinced that the difference between us and Bayern is not as big as it appeared in the first leg,”
Manager Antonio Conte said, and he better be right. An early goal would be a huge help ion making a game of it, and Juve’s deficit is not nearly as daunting as Galatasaray’s, and we all saw how that went Tuesday. But Juventus will have to overcome it without help from Stephan Lichtsteiner and Arturo Vidal (who are suspended) and the shaven-headed microwave Sebastian Giovinco, who injured his knee in Sunday’s win against Pescara. Juventus diehards will note that the club is 5-0 in European quarterfinals against German clubs, which is a historical lifeline to cling to, but they’ll also conveniently ignore the fact that the Bianconeri were unbeaten in European road games for three years until they went to Munich last week.