Paris Saint Germain have a way of getting tough draws in the Champions League group stage. Last year, the French champs were drawn into a group with FC Barcelona. Barca were, of course, favored to win the group-and they did, before going on to win the entire UCL tournament. But PSG held their own, too, actually beating Barcelona 3-2 the first time the two teams played one another in the group. The match, played on September 30th, 2014, marked Barcelona's first loss of the 2014 2015 campaign and marked PSG as potential contenders for the Champions League title. The Parisians would ultimately bow out of the conversation in the quarterfinals, after having the misfortune of being drawn against Barcelona for a second time.
This fall, PSG have just as difficult of a draw in the group stage, where they are pitted against Barca's La Liga rivals (and 10-time UCL champions) Real Madrid. This time around, though, the Parisians didn't shock the soccer world with an early upset of their high-ranking rivals.
Instead, the highly anticipated first meeting of Paris Saint Germain and Real Madrid in Group A ended as a wash for both teams. In a competitive October 21st match that some soccer pundits classified as a "disappointment," the Parisians and the Vikings settled for a 0-0 draw.
A Dull Match
Ask most football fans what they thought of the PSG-Real Madrid match, and the most common descriptor you will probably hear is "dull." For all of the anticipation for this game as a battle between two 
of the soccer world's foremost heavyweights, the actual match ended up lacking the excitement and energy we would have expected to see in a game that pitted Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic against one another.
If that battle actually happened, Ronaldo was the winner. The Portuguese star wasn't able to find the back of the net, but he came close a few times, with a pair of headers and a solid shot that went just wide of the goal. His efforts were ultimately spoiled by either bad luck or by Paris Saint Germain goalkeeper Kevin Trapp, but he was easily the best offensive player on the football pitch.
Ronaldo could have been the winner of that title by default, though, considering how PSG's attackers failed to make an impression. On paper, the trio of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Angel di Maria, and Edinson Cavani should be one of the best front threes in football right now-if not the best front three, with Lionel Messi injured at Barcelona.
In this match, though, we didn't see much from the trio, with Ibrahimovic seemingly content to maintain possession instead of press the attack. PSG ultimately did win the game in terms of possession (54% to 46%). However, it was telling that the Parisians created most of their best chances after di Maria and Cavani were substituted at the 67-minute mark, with Javier Pastore and Lucas Moura taking their places.
Real Madrid: Handicapped, but Still Solid
It's also worth noting that Real Madrid were without two of their top three players on Wednesday evening. Karim Benzema, who has been as impressive as Ronaldo in the La Liga this season, was out with a hamstring injury. Gareth Bale, who has been working this season to recover from a calf muscle strain, was also left out of the Vikings lineup for the day.
Those two absences could have easily tipped the scales in PSG's direction, particularly given the fact that the Parisians had the home field advantage on Wednesday. Both football clubs have been nearly perfect in Group A so far, easily winning their first two matches against group mates Malmo FF and Shakhtar Donetsk. In fact, after three games, Real Madrid and Paris Saint Germain are the only teams that have yet to concede a goal in the 2015 2016 Champions League.
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