A test for one of the best attacks in Europe to breach the defensive resilience of the visitors, PSG open the new Champions League season against Juventus in the first group stage game at Parc des Princes.
Both the sides have started their domestic league season unbeaten but both failed to escape the round of 16 stages of this competition last time out.
PSG vs JUV Match Details
Date: Tuesday, 6 September 2022/ Wednesday, 7 September 2022
Time: 21:00 (CET) / 00:30 (IST)
Venue: Parc de Princes, Paris
PSG vs JUV Match Preview
PSG’s desire to have the Champions League medal around their neck continues for one more season with the club once again going through a managerial change. Suffering humiliation last time out against title holders Real Madrid in the last 16 stages despite leading 2-0 on aggregate in the tie, the Qatari-owned club sacked Mauricio Pochettino and replaced him with Christophe Galtier. The French coach, incidentally, beat PSG to the Ligue 1 title in charge of Lille two seasons back but now has the job to make the Parisians victorious in Europe. Along with the managerial change, PSG appointed renowned sporting director, Luis Campos in place of Leonardo which has caused them to make more sensible signing this transfer window rather than the long trend of celebrity purchases that got them nowhere. Galtier’s methodology seems to have tuned perfectly with the current squad having scored a staggering 24 goals in the opening six games of the domestic league season and conceded just four goals in topping the chart. The switch to a back-three system has worked wonders for the team unleashing arguably the most clinical front trio of Messi- Neymar- Mbappe on the break. The MNM partnership has for obvious reason got so many goals for the side. Goals have never been a problem for the side over the years, having scored 15 in the Champions League last term, but defense has led them down in big stages in European competition. Their main enemy for their dismissal from the first knockout round being in a winning position back in February. The recent amalgamation brought in by Galtier has made PSG defensively sound but they have to put it in the Champions League if the capital club is serious to win the trophy this season. They face quite a test in Juventus who are unpredictable in every sense in the opening group stage game of the 2022/23 season. With Maccabi Hafia and Benfica also to face in this group, an 11th consecutive appearance in the knockout rounds shouldn’t be a problem.
Maximiliano Allegri’s Juventus suffered the same faith as PSG last season in the Champions League, eliminated by surprise customers Villarreal in the round of 16 stages. Managed by Unai Emery, the Yellow Submarines made their way to the semifinals of the contest and triumphed over the Serie A giants on the aggregate score by beating them 3-0 at Turin. The fragilities for Juventus for the last couple of seasons were opened up that night as they failed to take advantage of a 1-1 draw in the first leg. Indeed, the Old Lady have not escaped this round of the competition for the last three seasons, beaten by Lyon, Porto and Villarreal respectively. Three opponents they should have beaten. Now, with key reinforcement done in the summer Juventus are willing to do well in the Champions League having reached the final twice in recent seasons in the year 2015 and 2017. The Bianconeri curtain raiser in this season’s group stage is against Paris Saint Germain whom they took two major players, Angel Di Maria and Leonardo Paredes to add in their ranks. Di Maria’s debut in his new colors was explosive but he has gone down well with injury since while Paredes only played last weekend coming back from his injury. Both now will be key contributors to Juventus this season. Paul Pogba has also joined back the team after running down his contract with Manchester United, however, his knee injury is now set to keep him out this year. The visitors for the clash on Tuesday night have remain unbeaten so far in the Serie A although yet to win on the trip with three consecutive draws in away games. Injuries have plagued the team known by the latest setback of the Frenchman with defense also lacking leadership after the departure of Georgio Chellini and Mattias de Ligt but new arrival Gleison Bremer has impressed. The humungous task for Juventus is to keep the lethal frontline of the hosts quiet and can use their defensive record of conceding just two goals in five games to their advantage.
Recent Form
PSG: WWDWW
JUV: DWDDW
PSG vs JUV Team News
Christophe Galtier has given the clearance on Vitinha to be in contention for the game. Brought from Porto this summer, the midfielder was at the end of a red-carded challenge from ex-Manchester United player Fabio against Nantes at the weekend. He was replaced by Renato Sanches, who is likely to begin this game, past the half-hour mark but has recovered from any injury sustained in the incident. There are no other issues for the manager to think of other than youngster Timothee Pembele set to miss out on the first part of the season through cruciate ligament injury. Kylian Mbappe will play his second tie against Juventus after becoming the youngest player to score in the competition history facing the same opponents in 2017 while he was playing for AS Monaco.
Juventus boss Maximiliano Allegri said Bonucci, Vlahovic, Adrien Rabiot and goalkeeper Matia Perin are the only ones certain of playing against PSG. He is yet to decide on the rest with injuries concerning Juventus again. Wojciech Szczesny is unavailable again with a sprained ankle so Perin continues to hold onto the number one spot. The club has provided an update on Paul Pogba’s status after the Frenchman had successful surgery on his knee. The player returning at Juventus from Manchester United decided against the operation in the first place but took it at last having failed to make the final training session ahead of the game. Allegri says they will realistically get him back in January which means the 29-year-old will certainly miss the World Cup this year. Also, Angel Di Maria has not traveled with the squad for a precaution on his injury. The Argentinian played in the weekend draw at Florence, however, won’t be facing his old club in the Champions League. Reunited with Di Maria in Turin, his national teammate Leonardo Paredes is set to start against the Parisians after making the switch from them this summer like the 34-year-old. Federico Chiesa is some weeks away from fully recovering from the cruciate ligament injury that kept him out since January.
PSG vs JUV Predicted Lineups
PSG: Gianluigi Donnarumma; Sergio Ramos, Marquinhos, Presnel Kimpembe; Achraf Hakimi, Renato Sanches, Marco Verratti, Nuno Mendes; Lionel Messi; Kylian Mbappe, Neymar
JUV: Mattia Perin; Danilo, Leonardo Bonucci, Gleison Bremer, Alex Sandro; Manuel Locatelli, Leandro Paredes, Weston McKennie; Juan Cuadrado, Dusan Vlahovic, Filip Kostic
PSG vs JUV Head to Head
This will be the first meeting between the two in the Champions League. The pair haven’t played each other since Juventus demolished their first group stage opponent 9-2 on aggregate in the 1996 UEFA Super Cup played in 1997.
PSG vs JUV Dream11 Team Prediction
GK: Donnarumm
DEF: Hakimi, Marquinhos, Bremer, Mendes
MID: Neymar, Paredes, Kostic
FW: Messi, Vlahovic, Mbappe
Captain: Lionel Messi
Vice-captain: Kylian Mbappe
Neymar has undisputed 7 goals and 6 assists in the first six matches of the new Ligue 1 season, contributing 13 of the 24 goals PSG has scored so far. He hasn’t scored any in the Champions League last season.
Lionel Messi has 3 goals and 6 assists in six matches playing his second season at PSG. He has 3 goals and 2 assists in 11 meetings with Juventus.
Kylian Mbappe is joint top-scorer with Neymar in his domestic league and scored 6 goals in eight games last season in the Champions League.
