2022-23 UEFA Champions League knockout stage team preview: PSG

IN BRIEF
Manager: Christophe Galtier
Group stage performance: 2nd (WWDDWW - vs Benfica, Juventus, Maccabi Haifa)
UEFA Champions Leagues/European Cups: 0
Last season’s performance: Round of 16
SO FAR…
Paris Saint-Germain were absolutely superb in the UEFA Champions League group stages. It was arguably their most impressive set of performances in the opening round of the competition ever but they still managed to contrive to finish second in the table, behind Benfica.
PSG began their campaign with a 2-1 win over Juventus before comfortably defeating Maccabi Haifa in Israel. Back-to-back draws with eventual group winners Benfica was then followed by a 7-2 demolition of Maccabi Haifa and a 2-1 win against Juventus in Turin.
Whilst their performances remained strong, they never got up to the standard that the club had set in their early season Ligue 1 outings. Christophe Galtier’s side were tearing sides to shreds in the French top-flight and whilst that may be fairly viewed as par for the course for the club that is so financially dominant in France, there was a clear and concise cohesion to their game that appeared to be mellowing their super stars’ ego’s.
Despite taking 14 points from their six games and going unbeaten, though, their two middle of the group stage draws against Portuguese league leaders Benfica would cost them with the Lisbon club finishing above PSG based on away goals scored in the group stages.
WHAT ARE PSG’S CHANCES IN THE KNOCKOUT STAGES?
As mentioned, Christophe Galtier’s approach to management generally has been impressive. He defeated PSG in the 2020/21 title race with Lille surprising everyone by winning the title. He implemented a similarly calm but authoritative style at the start of his stint with PSG but things have gone wrong, as expected.
The determined and motivated performances of his stars was credited to Galtier, and rightly so, but concerns always remained that the upcoming FIFA World Cup in Qatar was the main thing that was focusing their minds. There is no way of knowing if that is true but the team performances as a whole have fallen off a clip since the return from the tournament.
Kylian Mbappe earned credit for returning to PSG training early after losing the final on penalties to his club teammate Lionel Messi, and Argentina. Mbappe will be missing the first-leg of their Last 16 tie against Bayern Munich, though, after sustaining a hamstring injury.
PSG have the players but they have always had the players. Last season they had the players, they had the game plan and they had a seemingly unassailable lead against the eventual winners… but still went out earlier than they should. It is too easy to say they ‘could’ and ‘should’ but won’t win it – but it is easy because it has so often been proven to be the case.
ODDS TO WIN THE 2022-23 UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: 43/5
Odds used are the best at Oddschecker at the time of writing