PSG v Man City Clash Tonight Is ‘El Cashico’

The Champions League quarter-final between Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City on Wednesday is not just a contest between two of Europe’s richest clubs, it is also a battle of honour between Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The English Premier League and Ligue 1 champions are emblematic of the domination of wealthy foreign owners in modern-day football.

Between them they are estimated to have spent more than 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion) on players, according to sports industry studies.

The football clash has sparked interest across the Middle East. Adding to the spice away from the football pitch, political relations between World Cup 2022 hosts Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, of which Abu Dhabi is one of the seven constituent emirates, have until recently been poor.

“Yes, you can say there is competition to see who has the best team,” said Qatari football fan, Mohammed Al-Jazali, talking of the competition between Qatar and UAE.

“It is like seeing if my BMW outperforms my neighbour’s Mercedes.”

The tie has been dubbed “El Cashico”, the “Oil and Gasico” and even the “Abu Derby” by inventive fans on social media.

PSG are at the moment estimated to be the fourth most valuable side in the world with an estimated revenue of 480 million euros while Manchester City are not far behind, the sixth most valuable club side, with a wealth of 463 million euros.

In the two champions league games played last night, Barcelona beat Atletico Madrid 2-1 after trailing 1-0. It was a memorable match, where Fernando Torres scored then got a red card, Lionel Messi almost scored a crazy goal and Luis Suarez was the hero scoring 2 goals for Barcelona.

In the second game, Bayern Munich has the advantage going into the second leg with a 1-0 victory thanks to Arturo Vidal, but considering Bayern put four past Juventus in Germany, that's not a terrible result for the Portuguese. Bayern is the heavy favorite to advance, but Benfica couldn't ask for much more than life ahead of the second leg. Benfica has lost just once at home in 2016.

-edited from Vanguard