The first knockout round of the Champions League gets underway on Tuesday evening with Paris Saint-Germain welcoming Chelsea to the Parc des Princes.
It will be the third consecutive season that the two clubs have met in this competition, with both boasting one win each from the two previous ties.
PSG
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Ever since the Qatar Sports Investments group took over at Paris Saint-Germain in 2011, they have set their sights on the holy grail of the Champions League.
Domestic success has been relatively easy to come by. They have won the Ligue 1 title in each of the last three seasons having only won it twice before in their history, and they are well on course to make it four in a row this term.
It is their standing on the continental stage by which they will be judged now, and so far they have been unable to muscle their way into Europe's elite.
Since their return to the Champions League in the 2012-13 season, PSG have reached the quarter-finals every year, only to be knocked out by Barcelona twice and Chelsea once.
Whether they are yet at the level of the likes of Barca, Real Madrid or Bayern Munich remains to be seen, but they will certainly feel that they are better placed for European success this year than ever before.
The French outfit may have missed out on top spot in Group A to Real Madrid, but they boast the best defensive record in the competition having conceded just once - in a 1-0 defeat at the Bernabeu - in their six group games.
Indeed, that defeat is their only loss in 39 matches in all competitions this season, with that run stretching back to 46 if you include the tail end of last term, since their quarter-final exit to eventual winners Barcelona.
They are the only unbeaten side left in any of Europe's top five leagues having remarkably only dropped eight points from a possible 78 in Ligue 1 this season, leaving them a staggering 24 points clear of second-placed Monaco.
Manager Laurent Blanc could afford to leave several key players out of his starting lineup at the weekend, then, and though he saw his side's 16-match winning streak ended at home to Lille courtesy of a goalless draw, it did little to affect PSG's path to domestic glory once again.
Lille became just the third side to prevent PSG from winning at home this season, with Bordeaux and Real Madrid for company from their 21 outings, and you have to go back to Barcelona's visit in April for their most recent loss in front of their own fans - their only one in European competition since the 2006-07 UEFA Cup group stages, 37 games ago.
On the field, then, preparations for this match could not have gone much better, but there has been a little strife off the field following Serge Aurier's disparaging remarks about some of his teammates and Blanc, resulting in his suspension from the club.
The self-confessed "unforgivable" slurs are likely to end Aurier's PSG career, but the club's European dream is expected to continue and it would be something of a surprise if a fourth successive quarter-final escaped their grasp.
Recent form: WWDLWW
Recent form (all competitions): WWWWWD
Chelsea
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Still unbeaten in his second stint as Chelsea boss, Guus Hiddink will face the toughest spell of his tenure so far on his trip across the English Channel on Tuesday.
The Dutchman has certainly stopped the rot at the club, overseeing 11 of their ongoing 12-game unbeaten streak, 10 of which have come in a league-leading run in the Premier League.
Draws have been more frequent than victories in that time, however, which has prevented Chelsea from making serious ground in the top flight, and they visit the runaway Ligue 1 leaders still in the bottom half of the table.
There must be some envious glances between capital cities when the Blues see how easily PSG are defending their title while Chelsea have been struggling so much to reach the heights of last term.
If reports are to be believed, some of those glances come from Chelsea players, with the likes of Diego Costa and Eden Hazard having been linked with moves to the Parc des Princes this season.
Coupled with the recent history between these two sides, which includes a controversial red card for Zlatan Ibrahimovic last season and a subsequent extra-time winner at Stamford Bridge in the second leg, it makes this meeting more of a rivalry than we are used to seeing in Europe's premier competition.
The hosts certainly start as favourites, but Chelsea will be keen to show that the difference between the two sides is not as great as the respective league tables suggest.
It was the Champions League that offered Chelsea much relief from their domestic struggles under Jose Mourinho this season as they finished top of Group G, and while Hiddink can't quite match his predecessor's record in this competition, he did help the Londoners to within a whisker of the final in 2008-09, only to be denied at the last by Andres Iniesta of Barcelona.
Hiddink can boast an unbeaten record with Chelsea in the Champions League, though, and at the weekend he watched his side put in arguably their best performance of his second stint so far, beating Newcastle United 5-1 in the end having raced into a three-goal lead inside the opening 20 minutes.
It was his first league win at Stamford Bridge since returning to the club, and away from home he has picked up as many victories in five games as Mourinho managed in his first 14 outings on the road this season.
They have won just three of their last 11 away games in this competition, though, and their only success in the group stages came against whipping boys Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Recent form: WLDWWW
Recent form (all competitions): DWWDDW
Team News
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Chelsea will be without captain John Terry for this match after he was forced off with a hamstring injury in the first half of their win over Newcastle at the weekend.
With Kurt Zouma also sidelined, Hiddink may be forced to move Branislav Ivanovic alongside Gary Cahill, and bring Baba Rahman in on the left with Cesar Azpilicueta switching to the right.
There is unlikely to be as much shuffling further forward, with Pedro hopeful of keeping his place following his two goals against Newcastle despite the return of Oscar (calf) to the squad.
Costa already has double the number of goals under Hiddink as he did under Mourinho this season, and he will once again lead the line with Alexandre Pato not named in the squad.
John Obi Mikel, who is known to be a favourite of Hiddink, is also expected to return to the side with Nemanja Matic suspended.
PSG, meanwhile, will welcome Ibrahimovic, who was sent off in this tie last season, and captain Thiago Silva, who scored the winning goal in extra time, back into their starting lineup after they were rested at the weekend.
Thiago Motta and Maxwell are likely to join that pair in coming back into the team, although Javier Pastore and Marco Verratti may miss out having only returned from injury against Lille.
Aurier is suspended by his club following his comments, but former Chelsea man David Luiz, who also scored at Stamford Bridge last season, is expected to start in defence.
PSG possible starting lineup:
Trapp; Van der Wiel, Silva, Luiz, Maxwell; Rabiot, Motta, Matuidi; Di Maria, Ibrahimovic, Lucas Moura
Chelsea possible starting lineup:
Courtois; Azpilicueta, Ivanovic, Cahill, Baba Rahman; Fabregas, Mikel, Hazard, Willian, Pedro; Costa
Head To Head
As already mentioned, these two clubs have grown familiar with each other in recent seasons. Both ties in the last two years have finished 3-3 on aggregate, with the away goals rule benefiting each team once apiece.
In all, PSG have faced English clubs on 11 occasions down the years, with just two wins from those meetings, although both of those victories did come on home soil.
Chelsea are the only English side to have beaten PSG in Paris, doing so in 2004 when Terry was on the scoresheet in a 3-0 win, but that is their solitary victory on French soil in seven visits.
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Betting Tips
Both teams have scored in three of the four matches between these two sides over the past two seasons, and our friends over at Smarkets are offering odds of 2.02 for that to happen again on Tuesday.
Chelsea are 6.2 underdogs to pull off a surprise first-leg win, while you can get odds of 3.85 for Hiddink to continue his unbeaten spell at the club with a draw.
Our chosen scoreline of 3-1 to the hosts is available at 18.5, and there are also odds of 4.2 for there to be over 3.5 goals.
We say: PSG 3-1 Chelsea
Chelsea may have established themselves as a tough team to beat under Hiddink, but this is a PSG side in scintillating form at the moment. They will harbour realistic hopes of going further than ever before in the Champions League this season and, while Chelsea will make things more difficult than the league tables may suggest, they should have the tools to build a good first-leg lead.
Barney Corkhill
