Two of the most in form teams in Europe are to clash heads as Paris Saint-Germain host Liverpool at the Parc des Princes today.
Alike in their prolific goal scorers, pressing ability, and dominance, this tie should be one of the spectacles of the season, with PSG manager, Luis Enrique, saying ‘it could have been a Champions League final’.
Arne Slot -Liverpool
With the Reds flying at the top of the Premier League table, their focus now shifts to dominating Europe’s biggest stage against arguably the other most in form team.
PSG have been in an incredible run of form. They are 22 games unbeaten since their 1-0 loss to Bayern Munich in the Champions League on November 26, 2024. On top of that, they are in fact unbeaten in Ligue 1 so far this season and currently on a 10 game win streak.
Despite this impressive recent form, their start to the Champions league since the departure of their star man, Kylian Mbappe, was tenuous losing 3 of their first 4 matches meaning they finished 15th in the Champions League table.
These early faults and their now incredible form has meant that they now have to face Liverpool, league table winners, in the round of 16.
Their tactics have changed
immensely over this season. Switching from a 4-3-3 to a 3-2-5 when in possession, they’ve put most of their focus on the wingers and fullbacks utilising that wide diamond.
They rank second only to Real Madrid across Europes top leagues in their use of switch of play due to their positional fluidity in order to draw the opposition out of shape and exploit them.
Their pressing intensity would rank the highest in the Premier League, winning 6.5 duels, tackles and interceptions per minute of opponent possession – Liverpool are ranked 3rd in the Premier league with 5.9.
Since finding this run of form, the stats would show that they are arguably better all-round without Kylian Mbappe as their goalscorers are now much more distributed throughout the team, with Mbappe scoring 35 per cent of the goals last season, now with Ousmane Dembele having 25 per cent of the share of goals despite his phenomenal form which is what Luis Enrique hoped for.
“Rather than having a player who scores 40 goals, I wanted players who all score a lot.”
Liverpool have faced PSG only 4 times over the course of their history. With 2 wins each, both at home, PSG only come out on top with goal difference, scoring 7 to Liverpools 6, but it is the legendary James Milner who holds the golden boot in this fixture having scored a penalty in both legs in the 2018/19 Champions’ League group stages.
These next two legs will quite possibly be the most difficult fixtures both team will have to face en route to the final, but it will surely be the most entertaining.
—onefootball
