Kylian Mbappé and Co. welcome Xavi’s males to Parc des Princes on Wednesday. We sit up for the UEFA Champions League quarter-final conflict with our PSG vs Barcelona prediction and preview.
PSG vs Barcelona Stats: The Fast Hits
- Paris Saint-Germain are the favourites for this one, defeating Barcelona in 49.7% of 10,000 pre-match simulations for the primary leg.
- PSG’s heaviest defeat ever within the European Cup/UEFA Champions League was inflicted by Barcelona after their 6-1 victory in March 2017.
- Solely Thomas Müller and Andriy Shevchenko have scored extra Champions League targets towards Barcelona than Paris Saint-Germain’s Kylian Mbappé.
Match Preview
Paris Saint-Germain will hope to place one foot within the UEFA Champions League semi-finals when Barcelona go to for Wednesday’s engaging quarter-final first-leg assembly at Parc des Princes.
Luis Enrique’s reigning Ligue 1 champions swept apart Actual Sociedad within the final 16, successful 4-1 on combination after a 2-1 second-leg victory in Spain to safe their progress to the final eight of Europe’s high membership competitors.
The success of Wednesday’s hosts could as soon as once more hinge on perennial Actual Madrid goal Kylian Mbappé, who scored twice within the second leg towards La Actual after additionally netting of their first assembly in mid-February.
Barcelona head coach Xavi shall be anticipated to position vital concentrate on Mbappé – as most managers normally do – however which may be no difficulty for France’s 2018 FIFA World Cup winner.
An enormous 91% of Mbappé’s touches on this season’s competitors have come whereas underneath stress from an opponent, the very best proportion of all gamers with not less than 50 touches. This highlights the respect groups have for him, but he’s nonetheless created extra possibilities with passes underneath stress (15) than every other ahead this time period.
Among the many defenders tasked with attempting to maintain Mbappé in verify on Wednesday could possibly be Pau Cubarsí. Ought to the Blaugrana centre-back be named within the beginning XI, he would change into the youngest defender to start out a Champions League quarter-final match, aged 17 years and 79 days.
And whereas the 16-year-old Lamine Yamal may also play an necessary function for Barcelona, Xavi doesn’t simply need to depend on the youngsters; he’s loads of expertise to depend on as effectively, and the likes of Ilkay Gündogan shall be anticipated to guide by instance.
The Germany worldwide gives midfield self-discipline but additionally supreme capacity on the ball, with Gündogan making extra passes that break the opposition’s line of defense than every other participant within the Champions League this season (19). He’s additionally registered three assists within the competitors in 2023-24, with Jordi Alba in 2018-19 (5) the final Barcelona participant to make extra in a single marketing campaign.
Gündogan’s know-how could possibly be key for Xavi’s facet, who will seem within the quarter-finals of this event for the primary since August 2020, once they suffered their heaviest ever defeat in European competitors. That 8-2 loss to Bayern Munich will nonetheless depart a bitter style that Barcelona hope to clean away on this tie.
That demolition by the hands of Bayern is a part of an underwhelming current report at this stage of the Champions League, having solely progressed from the quarter-finals in one among their final 5 makes an attempt, a 2018-19 success towards Manchester United.
Barcelona reached this stage after a convincing 4-2 combination conquer Scudetto holders Napoli.
A 1-1 first-leg attract Naples teed up a winner-takes-all decider, wherein Barcelona cruised to a 3-1 victory after Fermín López, Jõao Cancelo and Robert Lewandowski had been all on track.
As for Barcelona’s staff information, Xavi’s lineup will stay with out Alejandro Balde, Gavi and Pedri, although Frenkie de Jong and Andreas Christensen may function.
Achraf Hakimi shall be lacking via suspension for PSG; Nordi Mukiele is a doubt after lacking coaching this week, whereas Presnel Kimpembe continues his restoration from an Achilles tendon rupture. Nonetheless, Warren Zaïre-Emery and Bradley Barcola just lately returned to first-team coaching and must be obtainable.
PSG vs Barcelona Head-to-Head
PSG and Barcelona have met 12 occasions beforehand within the Champions League, with the head-to-head report completely balanced at 4 wins every and 4 attracts, but a few of these have been extra memorable than others.
The French facet inflicted one among Barcelona’s three situations of shedding by 4 targets away from dwelling in Europe’s premier membership competitors, having received 4-0 within the February 2017 first leg – although a outstanding collapse would comply with.
That four-goal lead was rendered meaningless the next month as Barcelona punished PSG with their heaviest European Cup/Champions League defeat in a 6-1 victory, dumping the Ligue 1 membership out of the spherical of 16.
Barcelona had been managed by present PSG boss Luis Enrique in that historic comeback, which stays the one time a staff has progressed from a two-legged knockout stage tie within the European Cup/Champions League after shedding the primary leg by 4+ targets.
Latest Kind
PSG boss Luis Enrique will meet his former facet because the Spaniard appears to be like to change into the primary supervisor of the French membership to win his first three Champions League knockout matches since Laurent Blanc in 2013-14, after the 2 last-16 wins over La Actual.
The Ligue 1 membership’s preparations for this encounter had been hardly very best, although, as Gonçalo Ramos was wanted to attain a late aim in a 1-1 draw at dwelling to Clermont Foot on Saturday. That won’t fear Luis Enrique, nevertheless, as he can name upon Mbappé – his 4 Champions League targets towards Barcelona can solely be bettered by Thomas Müller (8) and Andriy Shevchenko (5).
These targets for Mbappé got here from simply two video games, largely because of the actual fact he’s the one participant within the competitors’s historical past to attain a hat-trick towards Barcelona within the knockout phases (three targets in February 2021, within the spherical of 16).
Barcelona loved a relaxation on the weekend, with their final outing a 1-0 win over Las Palmas on the finish of March. That was their fourth win in a row in all competitions, they usually go into Wednesday’s recreation unbeaten in 11 matches.
Opta Energy Rankings
The Opta Energy Rankings are a worldwide staff rating system that assigns a capability rating to over 13,000 home soccer groups on a scale between zero and 100, the place zero is the worst-ranked staff on this planet and 100 is one of the best staff on this planet.
Forward of kick-off on Wednesday night time, right here is the Opta Energy Rating for either side.
PSG vs Barcelona Predicted Lineups
PSG vs Barcelona Prediction
The Opta supercomputer charges PSG because the first-leg favourites, with the hosts successful 49.7% of 10,000 pre-match simulations for Wednesday’s conflict on the Parc des Princes.
Barcelona managed an away victory in simply 24.3% of the identical data-led eventualities, whereas a draw – which might tee up a winner-takes-all second leg – was forecast extra usually in 26%.
Within the Opta supercomputer’s event simulations, PSG rank as second favourites to win the complete competitors at 14.4% – behind solely Manchester Metropolis (28.3%) – whereas Barcelona have a 9% probability of going all the best way. Arsenal (13.6%) and Actual Madrid (14.6%) are the opposite two sides with the next chance than Xavi’s Blaugrana.
PSG vs Barcelona UCL Squads
Paris Saint-Germain: Keylor Navas, Alexandre Letellier, Arnau Tenas, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Achraf Hakimi, Presnel Kimpembe, Marquinhos, Lucas Hernández, Nuno Mendes, Nordi Mukiele, Lucas Beraldo, Milan Skriniar, Manuel Ugarte, Fabián Ruiz, Danilo, Vitinha, Lee Kang-in, Warren Zaïre-Emery, Ethan Mbappé, Senny Mayulu, Kylian Mbappé, Gonçalo Ramos, Ousmane Dembélé, Marco Asensio, Randal Kolo Muani, Bradley Barcola.
Head coach: Luis Enrique
Barcelona: Marc-André ter Stegen, Iñaki Peña, Áron Yaakobishvili, João Cancelo, Alejandro Balde, Ronald Araújo, Iñigo Martínez, Andreas Christensen, Pau Cubarsí, Marcos Alonso, Jules Koundé, Gavi, Pedri, Oriol Romeu, Sergi Roberto, Frenkie de Jong, Ilkay Gündogan, Unai Hernandez, Ferran Torres, Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha, João Félix, Vitor Roque, Pau Victor, Lamine Yamal.
Head Coach: Xavi
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