No Neymar in Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain combined XI

The Champions League is back with a bang on Tuesday night with Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona kicking off the knock-out phase of the competition. The rivalry between the two dates back to Neymar's stunning move from Barcelona to PSG in 2017 and talk of a return ever since. Of course, Neymar is injured and won't get the chance to face his former club at Camp Nou.

Ahead of such a mouth-watering tie, we have worked out a combined XI from the star-studded squads, taking into account players with at least 10 starts across league and European competition this season. Only those that can play are considered, therefore excluding any injured or suspended players. It's why Neymar and Angel Di Maria are missing.

Diving straight in to it and there is a big talking point right away. Former Real Madrid goalkeeper Keylor Navas gets in ahead of Barcelona's Marc-Andre Ter Stegen. No doubt both are superb, but Navas slightly shades things with 12 clean sheets from 23 appearances compared to Ter Stegen's seven from 19 games.

Moving in to defence and it's perhaps no surprise to see an even-split. This season has been tough for both clubs. PSG's early struggles saw Thomas Tuchel replaced by ex-Tottenham and Espanyol manager Mauricio Pochettino over Christmas, while Ronald Koeman has been dealt injury after injury at the back all season. Gerard Pique was not expected to be available on Tuesday but has made a miraculous recovery and could now feature.

Right-back is unsurprisingly the weakest position across both squads. With Sergi Roberto injured, Barcelona haven't had their first-choice option for most of the season, while Paris Saint-Germain have rotated heavily. Alessandro Florenzi, who scored the best goal of his career against Barcelona, edges it to claim the right-back position.

There can be no complaints over the midfield in our combined XI. Marco Verratti is back from injury to qualify for the XI and he slots in alongside Frenkie de Jong. After a tough first season in Spain, De Jong has really kicked on this term and has been one of Barcelona's best players. A return of three goals and four assists across league and European competition is already better than last season (four goal involvements).

With both Neymar and Angel Di Maria sidelined, French duo Ousmane Dembele and Antoine Griezmann slot into the side relatively uncontested. Neither have reached their potential at Barcelona, certainly not on a consistent basis, but they flank their international team-mate Kylian Mbappe in attack with top rated player Leo Messi in the No.10 position.