PSG vs Borussia Dortmund

Parc des Princes is the venue as Paris Saint-Germain and Borussia Dortmund go head-to-head in a handsomely-looking 2023/24 Champions League Group F curtain-raiser.

New PSG manager Luis Enrique could already find himself in a must-win situation after a dreadful 3-2 home defeat to Nice left his side with only two wins from the opening five Ligue 1 matches (D2, L1). Without Neymar and Lionel Messi, ‘Les Parisiens’ have found victories at a premium this season. But the lure of the Champions League could reignite the resurgence of the perennial French champions. Despite exiting the competition in the first knockout round across the last two campaigns, PSG can always rely on the raucous Parc des Princes support to carry them through tumultuous times. Indeed, they’ve emerged victorious in six of their last eight European outings on home soil (D1, L1), while they’ve avoided conceding a goal in both previous home H2Hs against Dortmund (W1, D1).

With AC Milan and Newcastle United forming the remainder of this so-called ‘Group of Death,’ Borussia Dortmund’s bid to make it out of the Champions League group stages for the second season on the spin may hinge on a decent start. Edin Terzic’s men will take this trip in high spirits after turning a 2-1 halftime deficit into a 4-2 victory at Freiburg last weekend, maintaining an unbeaten four-game Bundesliga start in the process (W2, D2). But ‘Die Borussen’ must stop leaking goals as frequently as they’ve done lately, conceding precisely twice in their last two outings in the build-up to this trip. That hardly bodes well for the Germans’ hopes of defying an underwhelming record of a single win across their last six Champions League games on hostile turf (D1, L4).