Stuttering PSG faces moment of truth against Man City

PARIS — A stuttering and entirely unconvincing Champions League campaign for Paris Saint-Germain will come to a head if it loses to Manchester City on Wednesday, an outcome which would leave the French club teetering on the brink of an early exit.

PSG was handed what seemed like the toughest draw of any team in this new-look Champions League, with Arsenal, Atletico Madrid and Bayern Munich among its opponents before this meeting with Pep Guardiola's City at the Parc des Princes.

But a club that is one of the richest and most influential in the world game under its Qatari owner has still made a mess of things so far, even accounting for the difficulties of adapting to life without the departed Kylian Mbappe.

Beaten semifinalist last season, the Parisians deservedly lost away to Arsenal and Bayern and succumbed to a last-gasp defeat at home to Atletico.

They were held at home by PSV Eindhoven and only beat Girona courtesy of a late own goal.

Luis Enrique's team has scored only six goals in six games thus far, with three of those coming in the away win at a poor Red Bull Salzburg side last month.

It comes into the clash with City — to whom it has lost four of its last five meetings — sitting one point and one place outside the qualifying spots for next month's play-off round.

Failure to beat the English champion will see it going into its final match of the league phase, away to VfB Stuttgart on Jan 29, having to win to avoid going out.

To put that into some context, PSG has not gone out in the group stage in any of the last 12 seasons since returning to the Champions League in the wake of the transformative Qatar Sports Investments takeover of 2011.

Prior to that its last appearance had been in 2004-05, when it finished bottom of its group with one win in six matches.

However, that PSG was to all intents and purposes a different club to what it is now.

No Kvaratskhelia yet

The lack of goals this season underlines the fact that no direct replacement was signed for Mbappe — scorer of 44 goals in the last campaign — when the France captain left for Real Madrid.

Goncalo Ramos has missed much of the season due to injury and Randal Kolo Muani has fallen so far out of favor that PSG decided to send the French international out on loan in the January window, 18 months after he signed a 90 million-euro ($93.6m) deal.

At least PSG's domestic form has been relentless, with a comeback win at Lens on Saturday moving it nine points clear on top of Ligue 1.

"We are in a good dynamic going into a competition in which we have a lot of hope," said Luis Enrique, who will renew acquaintances with his old Barcelona teammate Pep Guardiola.

The problem is that PSG's domestic dominance has not always proven very relevant in the past when it has come to its results in Europe, often underwhelming albeit rarely a problem before the knockout stage.

"We find ourselves in this situation because of our performances," Enrique said of his team's European travails last week. "But we are prepared and we are optimistic."

Having the brilliant attacking right back Achraf Hakimi and France winger Ousmane Dembele back will be key — the latter has been ill but has six goals in his last five appearances.

Meanwhile PSG must hope that Bradley Barcola's match-winning performance last weekend is a sign of better things to come from a player who has not scored in the Champions League this season.

Barcola, 22, has seen his position on the left wing come under threat following the signing of Khvicha Kvaratskhelia from Napoli last week for a reported 70 million euros ($72 million).

However, the Georgian star is not eligible for this game and cannot be registered for the match against Stuttgart either, so Barcola will have his chance to impress against City.

"He is having an exceptional season. We all have confidence in him. This is the best season of his career," said Enrique.

For PSG, this match could be the one that defines the season.

AFP