Paris Saint-Germain boasts one of the most unstoppable squads in all of Europe and access to seemingly unlimited funds. That said, it’s easy to feel sorry for them when it comes to the UEFA Champions League.
Since the Qatar Sports Investments takeover just over a decade ago, winning the Champions League has been the ultimate goal for PSG. They’ve come close, reaching the final in 2020, but they’ve experienced a lot more heartache than moments of joy. You wouldn’t blame supporters for turning their attention to PSG’s eSports team and visiting https://gg.bet/en/dota2 to place a bet.
The first instance of things going wrong for PSG in the Champions League would have to be in 2017 when they threw away a 4-0 advantage to FC Barcelona and lost 6-1 in the return leg to crash out of the tournament. Then there was the lost to an undermanned Manchester United squad at the Parc des Princes in 2019. Even in that finals appearance where PSG lost 1-0, it was a former player—Kingsley Coman—who scored the game-winning goal.
In 2022, the Champions League competition is well underway and PSG appeared destined to finish first in the group, which would allow them to have somewhat of an easier route to the final in Istanbul.
First place in Group H came down to S.L. Benfica and PSG with Juventus FC shockingly underperforming. PSG finished the group stage with four wins and two draws for a total of 12 points. Surprisingly, so did Benfica and the two sides finished with the same goal differential. Head-to-head, PSG and Benfica drew both matches. So, which team finished first in the group? That would be Benfica since they scored the most away goals than PSG.
Now, PSG will be drawn into a Round of 16 match against potentially Napoli, FC Porto, FC Bayern Munich, Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea FC, Real Madrid, or Manchester City. As someone who has been following PSG for some time now, I can assure you that they will almost certainly draw either Real Madrid or Manchester City.
You only have to think back to this past summer when Kylian Mbappé turned down Real Madrid’s offer to sign a new contract at PSG. That’s the matchup everyone wants to see and thanks to the ridiculous away-goal tie-breaker, we might actually get to see the Frenchman walk into the cauldron that is the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium to face the supporters he left at the altar. Hopefully this time, PSG can get a bit of luck and avenge last season’s defeat. Wouldn’t that be a nice change for once?
