Who: Barcelona vs Paris Saint-Germain
What: League part, UEFA Champions League
The place: Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys, in Barcelona, Spain
When: Wednesday, October 1, at 9pm (19:00 GMT)
The right way to observe: We’ll have all of the build-up on Al Jazeera Sport from 16:00 GMT prematurely of our dwell textual content commentary stream.
Two of Europe’s tremendous groups will conflict within the opening leg of a Matchday 2 UEFA Champions League (UCL) fixture when defending title holders Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) journey to the Olympic Stadium to play five-time winners Barcelona on Wednesday.
Advisable Tales
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Each side have begun the brand new season robust: PSG began their title defence with a dominant 4-0 victory over Italian aspect Atalanta, whereas Barca outclassed Newcastle United 2-1 of their opening league part fixture.
Right here is all to know earlier than the most important match thus far within the 2025-26 Champions League:
Barcelona’s current kind
The Catalan aspect secured a 2-1 comeback win over Actual Sociedad on Sunday that despatched them high of the La Liga standings after they turned the match round with targets from Jules Kounde and Robert Lewandowski on both aspect of halftime.
Barcelona’s sixth win in seven matches moved the reigning champions to 19 factors – one level above archrivals Actual Madrid.
“It was a staff victory. They knew the best way to play and it was onerous work, however we deserved it,” mentioned Barcelona coach Hansi Flick.
Barcelona additionally completed the 2024-25 season undefeated at dwelling in Champions League fixtures.
PSG’s current kind
PSG are degree with Lyon on 15 factors on the high of Ligue 1 in France.
Their solely defeat this season was a 1-0 loss to Marseille on September 22, with Nayef Aguerd’s early header proving decisive in his aspect’s first dwelling league win over PSG since 2011.
PSG’s early-season harm woes
The beginning of PSG’s new European marketing campaign has been hampered by accidents, headlined by celebrity striker – and 2025 Ballon d’Or winner – Ousmane Dembele, who’s out till mid-October with a proper hamstring pressure.
Supremely gifted attacking participant Need Doue can also be sidelined till at the very least early October with a proper calf pressure, as is fellow winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, who was injured final weekend of their 2-0 win over Auxerre, additional decimating the PSG entrance line.
What occurred the final time Barcelona performed PSG?
The perimeters final met on April 16, 2024, when PSG produced a surprising comeback to beat Barcelona 4-1 away within the second leg of their Champions League quarterfinal, sealing a spot within the final 4 of the 2023-24 event with a 6-4 combination victory.
Raphinha gave Barcelona the lead within the deciding match, however they’d Ronald Araujo despatched off earlier than targets by Ousmane Dembele, Vitinha and a Kylian Mbappe brace – in one of many Frenchman’s final appearances for the membership – took PSG by means of to a semifinal in opposition to Borussia Dortmund.
What number of titles did PSG win within the 2024-25 season?
The Paris membership received 4 main trophies to cement essentially the most profitable season within the staff’s 55-year historical past: Ligue 1, Coupe de France, Trophee des Champions and the UEFA Champions League.
In addition they completed runner-up to Chelsea within the FIFA Membership World Cup in June.
Barcelona staff information
Raphinha is the most important title lacking from Flick’s dwelling aspect; the Brazilian winger is out of the PSG match with a hamstring harm.
Additionally out are Joan Garcia (knee), Gavi (knee), Fermin Lopez (again) and first-choice goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen (again).
Wojciech Szczesny will stand in for ter Stegen within the beginning XI, with Gerald Martin the probably candidate to fill in for Garcia within the again line.
In an enormous bonus for the Catalan aspect, star winger Lamine Yamal is predicted to return to the beginning XI for the primary time since being sidelined for 4 matches with a groin harm. He got here on as an alternative within the staff’s victory over Actual Sociedad on Sunday.
PSG staff information
Coach Luis Enrique can have little in the way in which of offensive choices, with talisman ahead Dembele and wing scoring menace Doue on the sidelines with harm since early September.
With Kvaratskhelia additionally unable to play, the scoring load will shift onto French worldwide Bradley Barcola, who will lead the road in opposition to Barca.
Brazilian centre-back Marquinhos may even miss the match with a left thigh subject.
In some excellent news for Enrique, he was capable of announce on Tuesday that beforehand injured Portugal midfielders Vitinha, who was third within the Ballon d’Or earlier this month, and Joao Neves made the squad.
Barcelona’s predicted beginning lineup
Szczesny (goalkeeper); Kounde, Cubarsi, Araujo, Martin; Pedri, De Jong; Yamal, Olmo, Rashford; Lewandowski
PSG predicted beginning lineup
Chevalier (goalkeeper); Hakimi, Zabarnyi, Pacho, Mendes; Lee, Vitinha, Zaire-Emery; Mbaye, Ramos, Barcola
Head-to-head:
- Whole matches – 13
- Barcelona wins – 5
- PSG wins – 4
- Attracts – 4
Final 5 matches:
- Barcelona: W-W-W-W-W (All competitions, most up-to-date outcome final)
- PSG: W-W-W-L-W
What the coaches needed to say:
Enrique (PSG): “Watching a recreation between Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain with 5 or 6 vital gamers [from both teams] not enjoying … to me it’s a disgrace, for the supervisor, [Hans] Flick, and for followers of each groups,” Enrique mentioned.
Flick (Barcelona): “I feel [the amount of injuries] will not be regular for us, however some accidents simply occur … We’re taking a look to see what we will do higher; we are going to analyse all the pieces and each coaching and we’ll see what [will] occur and if we’ve to adapt.”
What’s the league part of the 2025-26 UEFA Champions League?
Now coming into its second season, the expanded league part options 36 groups all positioned in a single big-league desk. It changed the previous group part, which had golf equipment drawn into smaller cohorts.
Within the league part, every staff performs eight matches in opposition to opponents from different nations to find out the general league standings.
The 24 highest-ranked groups proceed to the knockout part of the event after Matchday 8: The highest eight golf equipment proceed on to the spherical of 16; and the golf equipment ranked between ninth and twenty fourth enter a two-legged playoff to succeed in the knockout part. The underside 12 golf equipment are eradicated from the event.
2025-26 UEFA Champions League: When are the league-phase matches?
- Matchday 1: September 16-18, 2025
- Matchday 2: September 30-October 1, 2025
- Matchday 3: October 21-22, 2025
- Matchday 4: November 4-5, 2025
- Matchday 5: November 25-26, 2025
- Matchday 6: December 9-10, 2025
- Matchday 7: January 20-21, 2026
- Matchday 8: January 28, 2026
The place is the 2025-26 Champions League last being held?
The UEFA Champions League last will happen on the Puskas Area in Budapest, Hungary on Could 30.
