One of European football’s great modern rivalries was renewed on matchday two of the 2025/26 UEFA Champions League as Paris Saint-Germain traveled to Barcelona to face the Blaugrana at the Olympic Stadium. Once upon a time, it was the Blaugrana who were the dominant force, while their Parisian adversaries were the hungry upstarts. But boy, how the tables have turned.
Last season, many thought that the two powerhouses were on a collision course to meet in the Munich final, only for Barca to be shockingly downed in the semifinals by Inter Milan. PSG wouldn’t make the same mistake, thumping the Nerazzurrri 5-0 in a record-breaking final to claim the famous ‘big-eared’ trophy for the first time in the club’s history. Now, online betting sites think the two sides could be set to meet once again in 2025/26.
The latest odds from the popular Bovada betting site currently make both teams joint 6/1 favorites to leave Budapest as European champions next May, level with Premier League sides Liverpool and Arsenal. If the Parisians and their Catalan rivals can both make it to the final this season, as many people thought they would last, then it would be, without question, the biggest game the two outfits have ever played against each other. Until then, however, these three moments will have to suffice as PSG’s finest moments against Barcelona.
The First Introduction
The two sides had met three times before PSG’s Qatari takeover, with the French side surprisingly winning a 1995 Champions League quarterfinal before Barcelona got their revenge in the 1997 Cup Winners’ Cup final. However, it was the pair’s meeting in the 2012/13 UCL that truly kicked off the modern rivalry.
In that year’s quarterfinals, a Parisian outfit barely two years into their new era met a Barcelona team that had won the tournament three times in the last seven years. In the first leg at the Parc des Princes, it seemed like business as usual for the Catalonians as Lionel Messi gave the visitors a first-half lead. PSG found an equalizer through Zlatan Ibrahimovic, but Barca would take the lead again one minute from time thanks to a Xavi penalty.
The French champions never gave up, though, and Blaise Matuidi netted a last-gasp equalizer to ensure that all was still to play for in the second leg at the Camp Nou. There, Javier Pastore’s strike looked to have put PSG in the semifinals and rubber-stamped their credentials as a European contender. Barcelona would then find an equalizer of their own, however, with Pedro’s strike levelling the contest at 3-3 on aggregate but ensuring that the Blaugrana progressed on away goals.
While this wasn’t PSG’s finest hour, ultimately suffering elimination, their ability to fight to the death against arguably Europe’s best team at the time truly displayed that the Parisians were poised for the big time.
Parisian Revenge
In 2017, PSG suffered the embarrassment of the famous ‘Remontada’ with Barcelona netting three goals in the final five minutes of that season’s Round of 16 to progress to the quarterfinals. Four years later, the French giants would have their revenge, once again in the Round of 16.
This time around, the first leg would be at the Camp Nou rather than Paris, and it was the hosts that took the lead through Lionel Messi’s first-half penalty. Then, the visitors, and a certain Kylian Mbappe in particular, burst into life. The mercurial Frenchman scored a stunning hat trick to hand PSG a 4-1 victory. And this time, there would be no comeback. A 1-1 draw in the second leg ensured that it was they who progressed, exorcising the demon of the Remontada once and for all.
A Comeback of Their Own
That said, no football fan will ever forget the Remontada, especially PSG supporters who still have to watch highlight reels of that shameful Camp Nou collapse to this day. But in 2024, they would complete their own comeback for the ages: ‘La Revenir’ if you will.
In the 2023/24 season, the two clubs met in the quarterfinals, but this was a new-look Barcelona without the likes of Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez. Xavi was now the manager, and his team was led by striker Robert Lewandowski and teenage sensation Lamine Yamal. They duly combined to secure a 3-2 victory in the first leg in Paris, and an early Raphinha strike looked to have put the Blaugrana well on course for victory.
Then, it all went wrong. Defender Ronald Araujo was sent off on the half-hour mark, and his dismissal was the opening that the Parisians needed. Ousamane Dembele halved the aggregate deficit in the 40th minute before Vitinha levelled the two-legged contest ten minutes after the break.
When PSG needed a hero, who stepped up? Of course, it could only be Kylian Mbappe. The club’s talisman at the time smashed home a late brace to complete the PSG comeback and propel them to the semifinals, leaving Barcelona dreaming of what might have been.
