If Paris Saint-Germain defeats Manchester City on Wednesday, their sluggish and completely uninspired Champions League campaign will come to a spectacular end.
The French team would be on the verge of an early exit if Paris Saint-Germain loses against Manchester City on Wednesday, capping a sluggish and completely unimpressive Champions League campaign. Prior to their encounter with Pep Guardiola’s City at the Parc des Princes, PSG was dealt what appeared to be the most difficult draw of any team in this revamped Champions League, with opponents including Arsenal, Atletico Madrid, and Bayern Munich.
Even after accounting for the challenges of adjusting to life without the late Kylian Mbappe, a club that is among the wealthiest and most powerful in the world of football has mishandled things thus far under their Qatari owners.
Last season’s semi-finalists, the Parisians suffered a final-minute loss at home to Atletico and rightfully lost away to Arsenal and Bayern.
PSV Eindhoven held them at home, and Girona only defeated them thanks to a late own goal.
So far, Luis Enrique’s club has only managed six goals in six games, three of which came during last month’s victory away to a struggling Red Bull Salzburg team.
They enter the match against City, whom they had lost four of their previous five encounters with, one point and one slot outside of the play-off qualifying spots for next month.
They will have to win to stay in the league if they lose to the English champions in their last game, which is away to VfB Stuttgart on January 29.
In order to put it into perspective, PSG has not lost in the group stage in any of the previous 12 seasons since rejoining the Champions League following the 2011 takeover by Qatar Sports Investments.Their most recent outing was in 2004–05, when they had only won one of six games and placed last in their group.
That PSG, however, was essentially a different club from what it is today.
Not yet, Kvaratskhelia
The fact that no direct replacement was signed for Mbappe, who scored 44 goals in the previous season, when the France captain went for Real Madrid is highlighted by the dearth of goals this season.
Randal Kolo Muani has become so unpopular that PSG opted to move the French international out on loan in the January window, 18 months after he signed a 90 million-euro ($93.6 million) contract. Goncalo Ramos has missed a significant portion of the season due to injuries.
