Champions League: Real Madrid, PSG and Bodø/Glimt protect 3-goal leads in round of 16

Madrid, Paris and the Arctic Circle will all be watching Tuesday’s scoreboards with unusual calm, as Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain and Norwegian debutants Bodø/Glimt carry commanding three-goal cushions into the decisive legs of their Champions League round-of-16 ties.

The Spanish giants travel to Manchester holding a 3-0 advantage over City, while PSG arrive in London with a 5-2 lead against Chelsea, leaving the Premier League facing the prospect of a bruising European week. None of England’s six representatives managed a first-leg victory, and only Arsenal—level at 1-1 with Bayer Leverkusen—remain realistically poised to reach the last eight.

Further north, Bodø/Glimt continue to defy expectations. The club from a city of 50,000 leads Sporting Lisbon 3-0 and stands one clean sheet away from becoming the first Norwegian quarter-finalist since Rosenborg in 1997. Their path has already featured the playoff ousting of last season’s runner-up Inter Milan and group-stage wins over Manchester City and Atlético Madrid that sealed a historic place in the knockout phase.

With such steep deficits to overturn, Tuesday’s matches carry an air of inevitability for the holders of the big leads, yet the Champions League has never been short of drama, and the Norwegian minnows have made a habit of shredding the script.