CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Barcelona - Paris Saint-Germain confirmed team news: Kylian Mbappé starts for PSG
Luis Enrique’s side head to Estadio Olímpico Lluís Companys looking to overturn a 3-2 loss from the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final.
After four action-packed first legs last week, the Champions League quarter-finals return for the all-important return fixtures. Across Tuesday and Wednesday four teams will advance to the semi-finals, four will see their European campaigns end in defeat.
One of the most enticing of this week’s games is Barcelona against Paris Saint-Germain, played at the Spanish side’s temporary Estadio Olímpico Lluís Companys. Barca have a 3-2 lead from the first leg in the French capital but PSG certainly have the firepower to overturn that deficit.
Confirmed Barcelona team news
Confirmed Paris Saint-Germain team
What’s happening with Kylian Mbappé and PSG?
Strangely enough, Mbappé’s future with Paris Saint-Germain is in doubt as rumours of a summer move to Real Madrid swirl around Parc des Princes. If that sounds familiar, it may well be because you’ve read something similar at some point in the past five years. This time, however, the PSG manager is putting his foot down.
Mbappé has been a first-choice starter since his 18th birthday but has had to watch on from the substitutes’ bench at times this year as Luis Enrique looks to find alternatives for the soon-to-be-departing Frenchman.
The 25-year-old has only been in the starting XI for 79% of PSG’s league fixtures so far this season, despite not missing a single game due to injury or suspension. In their most recent fixture, a 1-1 home draw against struggling Clermont Foot, Mbappé played just 23 minutes off the bench. When asked about the prospect of benching Mbappé for a recent game against Marseille, Enrique refused to confirm that his superstar forward would start.
“As manager of my team and the club, I have to see this match very clearly but also have a general vision of what is best for us, that’s my job. I have to make a decision and I will do it thinking about what I consider to be best for the team,” he said.
However Enrique, aware of Mbappé’s generational talents, has made sure to play the Frenchman in the big games this year. He played and captained the team in the 2-0 win over Marseille and has been named in the starting XI in all nine Champions League games in 2023/24. These is little reason to doubt that he will start again on Tuesday.