Our next opponents: Paris Saint-Germain with star-studded attack

Position

The crowd witnessed a thrilling top-of-the-table encounter at the Parc des Princes last Friday at the Parc des Princes. In the 3-3 draw between leaders Paris Saint-Germain and third-placed Racing Strasbourg, the hosts were first out of the blocks. On his comeback after several weeks out injured, Désiré Doué set up Bradley Barcola for the opening goal (6’). After Strasbourg equalised, a misplaced pass from Doué led to the visitors' second goal. Strasbourg even pulled 3:1 ahead at the start of the second half. Goncalo Ramos (58') from the penalty spot and Senny Mayulu (79') finally scored for the UCL reigning champions in a thrilling clash. PSG coach Luis Enrique praised the morale of his team after the game: "We managed to come back from two goals down thanks to our fans, who were behind us as always. It was a tough game, but I think the team played well in the end." After the second draw in a row - PSG previously shared the points managed a 1-1 at Lille - PSG lost their lead in the Ligue 1 table to Olympique Marseille who beat AC Le Havre 6-2 putting them one point ahead. PSG also suffered their only defeat of the season so far against Marseille, losing 1-0 in the southern French port city, while the club from the capital have clocked up five wins and two draws to date this term.

Paris Saint-Germain started the league phase of the UEFA Champions League with two victories. The 4-0 win against Atalanta to open the campaign was followed by a 2-1 last-minute victory at Barcelona at the beginning of October. Senny Mayulu cancelled out the Catalan side's lead in the first half after impressive work from left-back Nuno Mendes. Shortly before the final whistle, centre-forward Goncalo Ramos netted the winner for the visitors at Camp Nou. Luis Enrique managed without several key players at his old stomping ground, including Ballon d'Or winner Ousmane Dembelé, captain Marquinhos, midfielder Joao Neves and winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.

With six points and a goal difference of 6 to 1, the Parisians are currently third in the Champions League behind leaders Bayern Munich and second-placed Real Madrid. As defending champions, PSG are also among the favourites in the Champions League this season. They won the competition for the first time in May of this year - and did so by the highest margin in a final in the history of Europe’s premier club competition. PSG did not give Inter Milan the slightest chance in a 5-0 victory in Munich.

Personnel

Luis Enrique had to replace his entire forward line in the 2-1 win at Barcelona. Désiré Doué made his comeback against Racing Strasbourg last weekend. Georgia international Khvicha Kvaratskhelia also retuned against Strasbourg after recovery from a thigh injury. The 24-year-old winger joined Paris from Napoli in January 2025. He could once again be a candidate for the starting XI at the BayArena on Tuesday.

Ousmane Dembelé, who suffered a thigh injury while playing for France at the start of September, may be back in the PSG squad at the BayArena on Tuesday for the first time in six weeks. However, the former Borussia Dortmund player, who played for BVB in the 2016/17 season, is likely to start on the bench. Luis Enrique does have plenty of options in attack. In addition to Dembelé, Doué and Kvaratskhelia, Bradley Barcola, Goncalo Ramos and the two young home-grown players Ibrahim Mbaye (17) and Quentin Ndjantou (18) are available. The versatile Senny Mayulu and South Korea international Lee Kang-in are also excellent, prolific attackers.

PSG have been able to compensate well for the absence of key defender and captain Marquinhos in recent matches. The Brazilian was ruled out due to a thigh injury. New signing Ilya Zabarnyi (who joined from Premier League club Bournemouth) replaced him in the centre of defence. Lucas Chevalier has been the PSG new number 1 since the summer. The 23-year-old Frenchman replaced Italy international keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, who signed for Manchester City. Proven key players in defence are right-back Achraf Hakimi, who like Dembelé once played for Borussia Dortmund, and his left-back counterpart Nuno Mendes. Both were voted into the top ten of the Ballon d'Or. As was midfield maestro Vitinha. In total, PSG had five players in the top ten in this poll, including winner Dembelé and Donnarumma, who has since left the club - another impressive indication of the exceptional quality of the squad. In addition to Dembelé and Hakimi, the two defenders Willian Pacho (2023-2024 at Eintracht Frankfurt) and Lucas Hernandez, who played for FC Bayern for four years until 2023, are well-known from the Bundesliga.

Problems

After the mega season of 2024/25 with four trophies, the team hardly had any time to recover. There were only two weeks between winning the Champions League (31 May 2025) and the first match at the Club World Cup in the USA (15 June). PSG played seven matches in this competition, including the final (losing 3-0 to Chelsea), beating FC Bayern 2-0 in the quarter-finals and Real Madrid 4-0 in the semi-finals. After that, there was only a short break again. Next came the UEFA Super Cup where Enrique's team came back from two goals down against Tottenham Hotspur to win the penalty shoot-out thanks to an energetic performance with two late strikes, thus lifting the first trophy of the new season. The heavy workload left its mark. At the start of the current campaign, PSG laboured to two narrow wins against Nantes and Angers (both 1-0). In the subsequent 6-3 victory at Toulouse, the hunger for goals was back, but the defence was shaky at times. The defence was also prone to errors in the recent 3-3 draw against Racing Strasbourg.

Performers

The attacking strength of the French record champions (13 titles) is unrivalled. Ousmane Dembelé, who has been at PSG since 2023, has scored 43 goals for PSG in two seasons and set up a further 33. His speedy team-mate and national team colleague Bradley Barcola has a similar record in the same period (30 goals, 32 assists). Desiré Doué and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia also hit the ground running in their first season in Paris. Right winger Doué shone as both a finisher and a provider; the Frenchman was the man of the match in the 5-0 win over Inter Milan in the Champions League final with two goals and an assist. Kvaratskhelia is a similarly quick and tricky winger. But midfielders such as Fabián Ruiz, Senny Mayulu and Joao Neves are also extremely dangerous. The latter scored three wonder goals in the 6-3 win against Toulouse in Ligue 1 with a scissor-kick, an overhead kick and a long-range effort into the corner. In addition, full-backs Nuno Mendes and Achraf Hakimi repeatedly joined in the attacks. Even without superstar Kylian Mbappé, who moved on to Real Madrid in the summer of 2024, PSG have incredible quality in attack. Luis Enrique saw it coming: The coach said his team would be even better without Mbappé. The future proved him right.