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The teams!
PSG: Donnarumma, Hakimi, Marquinhos, Pacho, Nuno Mendes, Vitinha, Neves, Fabian, Lee, Doue, Barcola.
Subs: Safonov, Tenas, Kimpembe, Goncalo Ramos, Dembele, Asensio, Hernandez, Mayulu, Zaire Emery, Lucas Beraldo, Zague, Tape.
Manchester City: Ederson, Matheus Nunes, Akanji, Dias, Gvardiol, Silva, Kovacic, Foden, De Bruyne, Savio, Haaland.
Subs: Ortega, Carson, Stones, Grealish, Gundogan, Wright, Alleyne, O’Reilly, Lewis, McAtee.
Referee: Szymon Marciniak (Poland)
Should mention that Brest, the surprise team of this league phase, are currently 2-0 down away at Shakhtar in one of the early kick-offs. Half-time there. It may be that the French side have to settle for a play-off, rather than the top eight.
Elsewhere, RB Leipzig lead Sporting 1-0. The Portuguese side continue to struggle following the departure of Ruben Amorim to Manchester United, who continue to struggle following the departure of Erik ten Hag, who struggled at Old Traffor … you get the gist.
Fábian Ruiz, who scored the winner in PSG’s 2-1 comback win at Lens at the weekend, is one of two PSG players that will miss the next (and final) league phase match if he is booked tonight, Nuno Mendes is the other. The Portuguese wing-back is so important to Luis Enrique, where it’s in a 4-3-3 or a 3-4-3 formation, so it’s important that he stays out of the referee’s book tonight, from a PSG perspective.
In case you haven’t been following, PSG are in rather good form domestically, winning six of the last seven in all competitions including crucial league wins over Lyon, Monaco and Lens. That means the Parisians are nine points clear of second-placed Marseille with just over half the season done.
The Champions League has been a different story altogether, though. Wins over Girona and Salzburg have been overshadowed by defeats to Arsenal, Atlético, Bayern and a home draw to PSV. They are the lowest-ranked French team in the competition by a distance, with Brest, Monaco and Lille sitting ninth, 10th and 11th respectively. This was a nice preview piece by Raphaël Jucobin that outlines how well Ligue 1 teams have done in the Champions League this season, PSG aside.
Preamble
What a game this is. The new format was designed to make the first stage of the Champions League more exciting, and while we can’t yet decisively judge if this has been a better idea than keeping the ol’ group stages until the league phase reaches its conclusion, 2024-25 certainly has provided plenty of shocks, and created more jeopardy for the so-called bigger teams, particularly because said teams are meeting earlier in the competition.
With PSG in 26th out of 36 teams and Manchester City 24th with just two games left in the league phase, both teams have already said goodbye to their chances of automatic qualification (the top eight) to the last 16. If one team loses tonight, there is also a possibility that they might not even make the play-off round (finishing in the top 24 after eight games). If PSG and City draw tonight and results go against them, we could end up in the situation where neither side make it to a play-off. But there is plenty of football yet to be played before that.
Neither manager is under any illusions about the precarity of the situation. “I don’t know how many points we will need [from the final two games]”, said City manager Pep Guardiola this week. “Six points will be mathematically [sure], but maybe four, maybe three”.
Of course, this is just one of nine Champions League games tonight. RB Leipzig v Sporting and Shakhtar v Brest are both well underway, while the other six games (below) will kick off at 8pm GMT. You can follow those half dozen in our clockwatch with Simon Burnton.
Milan v Girona
Arsenal v Dinamo Zagreb
Celtic v Young Boys
Feyenoord v Bayern
Real Madrid v RB Salzburg
Sparta Prague v Internazionale
This kick-off is at 8pm GMT, with teams due at 7pm.
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