Paris Saint-Germain vs Barcelona Preview: Team News & Prediction | 2026-27 UEFA Champions League | League Phase
by Alex Lawes ·
A truly stellar tie in the league phase of the UEFA Champions League sees double defending champions Paris Saint-Germain face the relentless Barcelona.
Kick-off date/time:
How to watch on TV & online: UK – TNT Sports & HBO Max / USA – Paramount+
Paris Saint-Germain preview: Brilliant in Europe again
Having stuttered at the start of this season domestically, the back-to-back UEFA Champions League winners put in a masterful first half performance against Manchester City last week as they ran out eventual 4-2 winners at the Etihad Stadium.
Since then, they again remained unconvincing in Ligue 1 as they needed to come from behind late on to defeat Strasbourg by three goals to one with late strikes scored by Illya Zabarnyi, Ousmane Dembele and Desire Doue.
Barcelona preview: Brilliant Blaugrana
Hansi Flick and his Barcelona side have been simply mesmeric so far this season as the Blaugrana head to the French capital city with 11 wins from 11 across all competitions, scoring 48 goals in the process.
Barca, who came from behind to hammer Galatasaray by four goals to one in Istanbul last week, defeated La Liga high flyers Real Betis by five goals to two at the weekend with goals from Lamine Yamal, Rodri, Gabriel Jesus, Eric Garcia and Dani Olmo.
Paris Saint-Germain team news: Unpredictable PSG
PSG often heavily rotate but Luis Enrique will want to name what he believes is his strongest eleven for this one. What that is is still up in the air, though, with both Joao Neves and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia on the bench last week. The latter may start here, though, as Maghnes Akliouche has picked up an ankle issue.
Predicted XI (4-3-3): Safonov; Hakimi, Marquinhos, Pacho, Mendes; Zaire-Emery, Vitinha, Ruiz; Doue, Dembele, Kvaratskhelia
Unavailable: Mayulu (Injured)
Questionable: Akliouche (Injured)
Barcelona team news: Eric & Raphinha fit
After an injury last week, Eric Garcia overcame that to score against Real Betis with Raphinha also coming back into the squad and expected to start up-front ahead of Gabriel Jesus at the Parc des Princes.
Predicted XI (4-2-3-1): J. Garcia; Kounde, Cubarsi, Martin, Cancelo; Rodri, Pedri; Yamal, Fermin, Gordon; Raphinha
Unavailable: Christensen (Injured), Bardghji (Injured)
Questionable: Martin (Injured)
Paris Saint-Germain vs Barcelona prediction
Barcelona have been rampant throughout the campaign but there would have some reasonable reservations about the standard of opposition. October was due to be a test as they headed to Istanbul – and scored four, headed to Seville – and scored five; and now they head to Paris before El Clasico against Real Madrid at the weekend. PSG showed in their semi-finals against Bayern Munich last season that against the highest level of opposition, they may well simply back themselves to win something of a basketball match and so this should therefore be fun.
Paris Saint-Germain vs Barcelona Tip: Over 2.5 goals
