Liverpool dealt fresh blow for PSG showdown after key ruling confirmed | OneFootball

Champions League holders now handed major advantage for heavyweight quarter-final tie

Paris Saint-Germain have been handed a significant new boost ahead of their blockbuster Champions League quarter-final tie against Liverpool.

PSG and Liverpool also met in the round of 16 during last season’s Champions League, where the French giants held their nerve to triumph 4-1 on penalties on Merseyside after both sides had won 1-0 away from home.

The Reds’ chances of gaining revenge on PSG will not be helped by the latter’s Ligue 1 meeting with Lens next month being postponed.

Luis Enrique’s reigning champions had been due to travel to meet their title rivals at the Stade Bollaert-Delelis on April 11, in between their two quarter-final legs against Liverpool.

PSG’s request to have that fixture moved, to allow them extra rest between their meetings with Liverpool, was opposed by Lens, who called it “unsportsmanlike” and said it was a “worrying trend” that “the French league is being relegated to a mere variable that can be adjusted to the European demands of certain clubs”.

PSG beat Ligue 1 title rivals Lens 2-0 at the Parc des Princes back in September

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Lens - currently sitting a point behind PSG at the Ligue 1 summit, having played a game more - said it was difficult to find a similar precedent anywhere in European football’s other major leagues and bemoaned the potential impact upon their own fixture schedule.

However, the Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) have now unanimously decided to postpone Lens vs PSG until May 13, which is between the last two rounds of the French top-flight season.

Strasbourg have also had their Ligue 1 match away at Brest on April 12 postponed as it falls between the two legs of their Conference League quarter-final tie against German club Mainz.

"These decisions are in line with the strong strategic direction of the board of directors to enable France to retain its fifth place in the UEFA (coefficient) index, which allows it to obtain four places in the UEFA Champions League," the LFP’s statement read.

PSG also saw a game against struggling Nantes postponed between the two legs of their Champions League last-16 tie against Chelsea, which they won 8-2 on aggregate. Lens are not competing in Europe this season after finishing eighth in Ligue 1 in 2024/25.