04 September 2022
Juventus step onto the Champions League stage on Tuesday night at the Parc des Princes, home to Paris Saint Germain.
The French champions collected their 10th league title last season and have already added to their record haul of national trophies with the Trophée des Champions, the French Super Cup, following a 4-0 success over Nantes on July 31 in Israel.
On Saturday, PSG defeated Nantes again, this time in the league, to continue their unbeaten start to the domestic season, having now won five of the six league games played under the guidance of new coach, Christophe Galtier.
The tactician hit the headlines when he led Lille to the French league title in season 2020/21. Last year, at the helm of Nice, he took the southern club to a fifth-placed finish in the league and the runners-up spot in the French Cup - enough to earn him a call from PSG.
PLAYER FOCUS
PSG boasts talented individuals from defence to attack, including Italy internationals Gianluigi Donnarumma in goal and Marco Verratti in midfield. However, it is the frontline that attracts most attention because of three star players, Lionel Messi, Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior and Kylian Mbappé.
Messi arrived at the Parisian club in the summer of 2021 having won the Champions League four times with Barcelona. One of those successes was achieved alongside Neymar, who has been at PSG since 2017. Mbappé, who renewed his contract with the club in the summer, is still hunting his first Champions League winner's medal.
TEAM FOCUS
Paris Saint Germain have reached the knock-out phase of the Champions League in each of the last 10 seasons and have been eliminated by the tournament's eventual winners three times, in the quarter-finals by Barcelona in 2014/15 and in the Round of 16 in 2017/18 and 2021/22 by Real Madrid.
The farthest PSG have gone in the Champions League is the final in season 2019/20. The French team, which included Bianconeri summer signings Angel Di Maria and Leandro Paredes in the starting XI, were defeated by Bayern Munich 1-0 with former Juventus player Kingsley Coman the scorer of the game's only goal.
In club history, PSG have lifted two European trophies. They were one of three winners of the UEFA Intertoto Cup in 2001 after an inaugural success in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1995/96. In the subsequent European Super Cup, the Parisian outfit lost 9-2 on aggregate to Juventus.
