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30 min: Doué is clearly enjoying himself, showboating on the right wing to look Kovacic a bit silly. But there’s no end product and the PSG teenager loses the ball again.
The PSG ultras, by the way, are absolutely deafening. Some atmosphere.
28 min: City counter-attack at pace, with Marquinhos very lucky not to receive the game’s third booking for upending De Bruyne. Savinho picks up the loose ball, drives forward through the middle of the pitch and releases Haaland just a second too late. The City striker had to check his run and then was off balance and outmuscled by Pacho.
Should mention that I missed that PSG’s Nuno Mendes has picked up a booking for clearing out Matheus Nunes.
26 min: PSG earn a corner after a Vitinha shot is deflected behind. Lee whips it in to the near post, Neves gets a flick on and the ball drop to Fabian Ruiz six yards out but the Spaniard sees his shot blocked by Gvardiol on the goalline! The City defender was in the right place at the right time and shinned it clear!
Manchester City’s Josko Gvardiol (second right) earns his corn. Photograph: Michel Euler/AP
24 min: Savinho sends Hakimi to the shops with a dummy feint, as the Brazilian canters down the left wing with purpose. Savinho crosses low to Foden, but the Englishman loses his footing on the edge of PSG’s area at the crucial moment.
22 min: First chance for Haaland! Foden hangs up a cross from the right wing but the big striker can’t get enough power on the lofted cross, and Donnarumma gathers easily.
20 min: Doué with a rabona! PSG lose possession, though. Senseless waste.
18 min: England manager Thomas Tuchel is in the stands, sat right next to France manager Didier Deschamps.
Time for an international managers chinwag. Photograph: Thibault Camus/AP
16 min: PSG have definitely been the brighter in the opening minutes, especially down this left side with Barcola looking bright, but City are beginning to enjoy some possession in midfield without creating any clear-cut chances. Haaland is lurking dangerously on the last man, though.
14 min: City’s back four has switched. It is now, from right to left: Matheus Nunes, Akanji, Dias, Gvardiol. So all four are in different positions to the one they were in 10 minutes ago.
12 min: Here come City. Savinho tries a shot – blocked by Marquinhos before De Bruyne finds some room and pings an effort right at Donnarumma. Well saved by the Italian.
10 min: Big chance for PSG! Dias floors Hakimi, for which the City defender receives an early booking. From the resulting free-kick, a swirling ball is sent to the back post where João Neves meets it with a free header! But the former Benfica man sends his header over! Oooooh, and that’s a bad miss.
8 min: City’s back four is currently, from right to left: Akanji, Dias, Gvardiol, Nunes. Matheus Nunes at left back! Well, I never.
“Glad you mentioned the kits Michael,” emails Ian Sargeant. “I was wondering how I’d describe City’s. If you put three lime, two lemon and one strawberry Starburst/Opal Fruits in your mouth – chewed them all without swallowing any and took the glob out of your mouth you’d have something looking pretty close”. V
Very specific with your calculations there, Ian. And I like it.
6 min: PSG’s Doué latches onto a beautiful diagonal pass and drives into the box, registering our first shot of the nigh and stinging Ederson’s palms with a fierce drive.
4 min: Both teams are operating with a high press. Silva wins the ball in midfield for City before Foden breaks forward at pace. City earn a corner, but they take it short and the move completely peters out.
2 min: I have already mentioned the rain but it is fairly torrential and making for a very slick surface. I smell a defensive slip.
PSG’s Achraf Hakimi beats Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne in the rainy Paris air. Photograph: Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters
We are underway in Paris.
Rarely have I seen such a fetching home kit (brand new PSG navy number) and such a gross away kit (City’s yellow/light blue/rainbow away kit nonsense).
Back to Paris. The teams line up in fetching tracksuits as the Champions League anthem is blared out at the Parc des Princes. There are tifos aplenty in the stands and a whole lotta noise. We are one minute away from kick-off. Woof.
Tifo-tastic. Photographs: Stéphanie Lecocq/Reuters (top); Christophe Petit-Tesson/EPA
We have our first email of the night, and it’s a cracker.
“Do you know what the terms of Solomon’s loan at Leeds are? Could Spurs not recall him? Just a thought. Cheers, Tim, Middlesex”
Sorry, Tim, no I don’t.
Full-times in the early kick-offs:
RB Leipzig 2-1 Sporting
Shakhtar 2-0 Brest
This is what is does to the Champions League league phase standings.
The latest Football Daily is worth a read. And you can sign up here for an email subscription.
And why not read the first half of this MBM while catching up on last night’s Champions League action in the latest Football Weekly podcast?
It’s raining heavily in Paris. City will feel at home.
For clarity, PSG’s big-money €70m signing Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, is not cup tied. Napoli are not in any European competitions this season, which might be a factor in why they are currently top of Serie A. However, Kvaratskhelia is ineligible for PSG tonight because he wasn’t registered for the league phase back in September (because he was only bought this month). The Georgian can, however, be registered for the knock-out stage of the Champions League, should PSG make it.
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (right) during PSG training recently. Photograph: Christian Hartmann/Reuters
Our clockwatch is live, covering the following matches that also kick-off at 8pm GMT:
Milan v Girona
Arsenal v Dinamo Zagreb
Celtic v Young Boys
Feyenoord v Bayern
Real Madrid v RB Salzburg
Sparta Prague v Internazionale
Much of the Manchester City focus building up to this match continued to fall on Erling Haaland after the news broke last week of his record-breaking nine-and-a-half-year contract.
City have also spent big on two young defenders this month. Neither Vitor Reis or Abdukodir Khusanov are in Guardiola’s squad tonight.
Manchester City sign £33.8m defender Abdukodir Khusanov from Lens
There is expected to be a further big-money arrival in Omar Marmoush from Eintracht Frankfurt.
Let’s unpack those teams a little.
PSG line up in a 4-3-3, a more defensive formation to the one they fielded at the weekend against Lens. Having started that game, Warren Zaïre-Emery drops out of the XI. Having missed that squad entirely, Ousmane Dembélé returns to the bench.
Manchester City line up in their customary 4-2-3-1 that will morph into a 4-3-3 and back again. Jérémy Doku has a knock so Savinho comes in. Gündogan drops out for Bernardo Silva. John Stones returned to the squad after a one‑month injury layoff, while Rodri has travelled to be a part of things as he recovers from his anterior cruciate ligament rupture. Kyle Walker is not in the squad as he looks to complete his move to Milan.
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.
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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