The meeting of the mega-rich, a battle of the billionaires, the petrodollar party...

There is endless potential to make puns at the expense of Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City's forthcoming clash in the Champions League, but while the tie evidently offers little of the romance that makes football most exciting (see: Leicester City), there is equally no denying that these two sides are a growing force in the make-up of the European game.

Regardless of which team comes out victorious in two weeks' time, we are guaranteed the presence of one of them in the semi-finals of the European Cup for the first time since their respective takeovers occurred. The outcome should provide a useful demonstration of who has gone furthest in their Champions League project, and who is best prepared to take the next big step of winning the competition.

Of the two Emirate-owned sides in this year's quarter-finals, PSG's journey has clearly been the shortest. Back in the 1990s they were an established presence in Europe, winning the Cup Winners' Cup and even making it to the Champions League semis thanks to George Weah's exceptional form in front of goal, the Liberian finishing the 1994-95 edition as top scorer. Around the same time, Manchester City were busy struggling in the lower leagues, dropping as far as English football's third tier in 1998.

When the Qatar Investment Group purchased PSG in 2011 they were no longer a European force however, and had even flirted with domestic relegation. Back then, their most-recent Champions League participation was in 2005, when they finished bottom of a group containing Chelsea, Porto and CSKA Moscow, while progression from the first round had not occurred since 2001 -- a decade before Nasser Al-Khelaifi took charge. Major work was still needed if they wanted to make the kind of mark that their ambitious new owner hoped for.

PSG had the advantage in terms of previous experience of the demands of European football, but City had a head start in terms of time, Sheikh Mansour's master-plan into action three years before the changing of the guard in the French capital. Both have ploughed previously unfathomable amounts of money into their respective squads, in an effort to compete with the talent core at the established European giants.

Of the two, PSG have been the more measured and effective in this regard: the Parisians have at least one player in every line of their team who could fathomably play for a present-day European champion (many of them already have). Man City's approach to signing, by contrast, still has a scattergun feel on occasion, exemplified by a still sub-par defence that would be nowhere near the likes of Atletico, Bayern, Madrid or Barca.

A significant share of the credit for City's steps forward in Europe has to go to their manager therefore, and in hindsight, hiring Manuel Pellegrini now looks like a key move.

Roberto Mancini's dismal performances in back-to-back Champions League seasons provided little suggestion that he was capable of pushing the club on on that stage. The Premier League side actually regressed in their group stage positions under the Italian from one season to the next, finishing third in 2012 then fourth in 2013.

In came Pellegrini, a specialist at cracking Europe from his time with Malaga and Villarreal, and the progress was immediate. The Chilean took City to the knockout stage at the first attempt, and while he couldn't go further the following year, a harsh draw against eventual champions Barcelona evidently played its part. This year, the English side topped their group before making the quarter-finals for the first time in the club's history, ensuring their manager leaves a notable Champions League legacy at the Etihad.

A different story is Laurent Blanc, who still is still looking to write his own part in PSG's European history. When he joined in 2013 they had just produced a run to the quarter-finals of the Champions League under Carlo Ancelotti, only losing out on a place in the semis through away goals after leading Barcelona deep into the second leg at the Camp Nou.

Blanc couldn't better that in his first year at the Parc des Princes, losing out to Chelsea in the quarter-finals on away goals, while a 5-1 thumping at the hands of Barcelona in the 2014-15 quarters was even bigger than the one City received in the previous round. That tie suggested that the French manager still had plenty of work left to do if he wanted to keep his club on an upward trajectory on the biggest stage.

Performances this year have undoubtedly been better. The control PSG showed during stretches of their last 16 clash with Chelsea is the closest they have looked to a team capable of winning the Champions League, but in a results-oriented business, they still need to deliver the more tangible improvement of a semi-final place.

From that stage onward, their squad is good enough to realistically target making the final, but first, City. If Pellegrini's men can pip Paris to the semis it would be a significant indicator that they are capable of overtaking them in the European race, and while they still look short of a squad ready to lift the trophy, a place in the last four would bode well for further improvements when Pep Guardiola arrives in the summer.

The French have more talent on the pitch, the English the better manager, but which will strike the blow that puts one club a step ahead of the other in the race for the European Cup?