Man City Host Two-Time Champions PSG as Haaland Closes In on Aguero's Champions League Record

Manchester City's focus switches to the Champions League on Wednesday when they welcome two-time holders Paris Saint-Germain to the Etihad Stadium, with Enzo Maresca's side looking to extend a remarkable start to the post-Pep Guardiola era.

City's tumultuous couple of weeks was bookended in remarkable fashion on Sunday. After being found guilty of breaching the Premier League's financial rules between 2009 and 2018 — a verdict the club maintains its innocence over and has appealed — Maresca's team delivered a show of defiance at Anfield. Erling Haaland, Jérémy Doku and Rayan Cherki scored in the wake of Ryan Gravenberch's red card as City beat Liverpool 3-0 to keep their flying start intact.

Maresca's marvellous start

Off the pitch there may be plenty of chaos engulfing City, but on it they have made a superb start to life after Guardiola, who will be back at the Etihad on Wednesday to take in a City game in person for the first time since he left. Maresca's men have won all eight of their games since the Community Shield (in all competitions), and their sternest test yet arrives this week.

That siege mentality was on show against Liverpool, where City's attackers ran riot once they went a man up. Haaland is hardly an unknown quantity, but Cherki was also fantastic behind him, capping a breathtaking 41-pass move for his goal. The former Lyon playmaker has averaged 4.1 defensive line-breaking passes per 90 for City in the Champions League — since the start of last season, the second-highest average of any player in the competition (min. 300 minutes played), behind only Lee Kang-In (4.5).

Then there is Elliot Anderson, who led the way for touches (100), accurate passes (71/78) and successful duels (11/17) against Liverpool. He has slotted straight in since his £116m move from Nottingham Forest and looks the real deal at the heart of City's midfield. City have shipped just eight goals and kept five clean sheets, and have started a league season with six straight wins for the second time since 2020-21.

What do the numbers say?

This will be the ninth meeting between Man City and PSG, with the Citizens winning four of the previous eight (D2 L2) and going unbeaten in the four matches they have hosted (W3 D1). Of the teams they have faced five or more times in major European competitions, only against Bayern Munich (52.9% — 9/17) have PSG lost a higher percentage of their matches than against Man City (50% — 4/8).

PSG, though, are unbeaten in their last 11 games in the Champions League (W7 D4) — only once have they had a longer run without defeat in the competition, 13 matches between October 2012 and November 2013. Their record against English teams is a good omen: PSG could become just the second team to go 10 or more consecutive games against English sides in the European Cup or Champions League without losing (currently unbeaten in nine — W7 D2), after Real Madrid between 2011 and 2017 (11 games).

The Opta supercomputer has run 10,000 pre-match, data-led simulations, and it is Man City who come out as favourites. They triumph in 42.2% of the sims, while PSG come out on top in 34.0%, with a 23.8% chance of a draw. Somewhat surprisingly, given their recent record in this competition, PSG are only the fifth favourites to win the Champions League this season, with Opta's model assigning them a 6.35% chance of a third straight title. City are second favourites (17.92%), behind Arsenal (21.25%).

PSG clicking into gear

PSG have gone from the Champions League's nearly men to two-time winners in the past couple of years. Luis Enrique's team have not made the best of starts in Ligue 1, but they can probably afford a sluggish couple of months before hitting their stride — they have now won their last three league outings. They also began their quest for a third straight Champions League crown in style with an emphatic 6-1 hammering of Slovan Bratislava last month.

In that game, former City forward Ferran Torres became the first player to score a hat-trick on their Champions League debut for a side since Robert Lewandowski did so for Barcelona against Viktoria Plzen in September 2022. PSG also recorded the most high turnovers (14) and shot-ending high turnovers (seven) of any side on matchday one of the new Champions League campaign, as well as boasting the highest possession share (72.1%).

As brilliant as PSG's attackers are, this game could well be won or lost in midfield. Vitinha makes PSG tick, and Anderson will be aiming to stem the Portugal international's influence. Since the start of last season, Vitinha leads all midfielders in the Champions League for completed passes (1,703), line-breaking passes (327) and possession won (106 times).

Players to watch

Manchester City — Erling Haaland: If he scores in this match, Haaland will overtake Sergio Aguero (36 goals in 64 appearances) to become City's all-time leading scorer in the Champions League (Haaland is currently on 36 goals in 40 apps). Haaland has also scored 42 goals in 39 appearances in the group/league phase of the competition, the most of any player since his first season in it in 2019-20. No team made more successful crosses from open play than City on matchday one (five, level with Inter), while their open-play crossing accuracy was the highest of any side to attempt 10 or more in the opening round (35.7%).

PSG — Ousmane Dembele: On matchday one, Dembele became the third PSG player to score two or more goals and provide two or more assists in a Champions League game, after Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi. Only Liverpool have also had three different players achieve this feat in the competition (Roberto Firmino, Mohamed Salah and Yossi Benayoun). Dembele has been directly involved in 31 goals in 41 Champions League games for PSG (20 goals, 11 assists), now the fifth most for the club in the competition, trailing only Mbappe (65 in 64), Neymar (37 in 41), Edinson Cavani (33 in 54) and Angel Di Maria (32 in 54).