TWO successive Champions League triumphs suggest Paris Saint-Germain are the best team in Europe, but as the results sometimes show, they are not invincible. PSG have started the season indifferently, two draws and a defeat, but one explanation for the disappointment could be a post-World Cup hangover. PSG had 16 players involved in a competition that ended on July 19, virtually the entire first-choice squad. Fatigue and distraction could be a problem.
PSG begin the defence of the Champions League with a home game against Slovakians Slovan Bratislava. They will also meet Manchester City and Aston Villa from the Premier League, Spanish duo Barcelona and Villareal, two Italian sides in Roma and Como and Turkey’s ambitious Galatasaray. It’s not the easiest of league phase programmes, but they should be accustomed to the attritional nature of the competition by now.
PSG have timed their Champions League campaigns well over the past two years. They haven’t coasted through the first stage at all and have had to qualify for the last 16 through the play-offs, hence they have played 34 games over their two successful competitions and have won 62% of them. And yet, their success in 2025 was met with grand statements from pundits that PSG had created a dynasty that could dominate Europe for years. In 2025-26, they lost just twice in their 17 Champions League games and in the knockout phase, they disposed of Monaco, Chelsea, Liverpool, Bayern Munich and Arsenal.
They have a squad with an average age of 24.9, further evidence that the days of galactico football at the club are well and truly over. They do have some of the most exciting young players in Europe and some are still a couple of years from their peak. Nine of their squad were included in the Ballon d’Or voting in 2025, which was won by their own Ousmane Dembélé. Their core squad cost over € 700 million and according to _Transfermarkt_, it has a value of € 1.36 billion. They now have a commitment to blooding young players and among Europe’s big five leagues, only Ligue 1 stablemates Strasbourg (37.9% versus 23%) have a higher percentage of under-21 minutes on the field (source: CIES Football Observatory).
So far this season, PSG’s players have come in for criticism from their fans, only new signing Magnes Akliouche and talented Georgian Khvicha Kvaratskhelia have received any amount of credit. World Cup matchwinner, Ferran Torres from Barcelona, may prove to be a very good addition to the squad. They were after another striker, but that didn’t happen. They lost Bradley Barcola to Liverpool, Lee Kang-In to Atlético Madrid and Goncalo Ramos to AC Milan. The club raised € 300 million in the market from outgoing players. PSG have conceded six goals from nine shots in their three league games, which has inevitably led to fingers being pointed at Russian goalkeeper Matyev Safonov. Two points from three games represent PSG’s worst start to a season since 2007-08, but they are notoriously slow starters.
Manager Luis Enrique, who has recently extended his contract to 2030, doesn’t seem too worried by the scorecard – they had to wait until the third fixture to play at home due to the installation of a new pitch at the Parc des Princes and their pre-season was shorter than usual. He believes the club needed to move some players on in order to inject fresh energy into the team. The departure of Barcola was not ideal but the player wanted to leave.
PSG’s bid to complete a hat-trick of Champions League victories would make them only the fourth club to achieve that feat. Real Madrid, of course, won three-in-a-row in 1957-58, 1958-59, 1959-60 as part of their five consecutive successes and the Champions League in 2017-18, Ajax completed a European Cup hat-trick in 1972-73 and Bayern Munich in 1975-76. PSG would be in very good company. In the history of the competition, the trophy has been retained 16 times, with the successful clubs including Benfica, Inter, AC Milan, Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.
It is likely to be a tough Champions League this year; Arsenal will be eager to try again after losing the final on penalties last season, Barcelona may feel they are developing into genuine contenders and Bayern Munich are probably due a strong bid once more. Manchester City, with their new coach and influx of new players, will also be out to win the trophy they lifted in 2023.
PSG will overcome their early season problems and will surely be well motivated to attempt the hat-trick. Having waited so long to win their first Champions League, the coach and the players know that failure is probably not an option.
Photo: Tim I Productions via Unsplash.
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