PSG vs Liverpool LIVE: Champions League team news and line-ups as Reds without Cody Gakpo | OneFootball

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The new mentality monsters? Arne Slot impressed by Liverpool's march towards the English Premier League title

Premier League leaders Liverpool face Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie tonight, with Arne Slot’s side looking to put one foot in the quarter-finals.

The Reds are among the favourites to win the competition this season and with the league almost wrapped up win current form, the club will have plenty of focus on Europe as they look to land an impressive double.

Having finished in first place of the competition’s new league-phase table, Liverpool progressed straight into the round of 16, and they face a PSG side who delivered an impressive 10-0 aggregate win over fellow Ligue 1 side Brest in the play-offs.

The French champions-elect are still trying to shrug off their reputation as one of the competition’s ‘nearly’ sides, and a win tonight could provide a big step towards that.

PSG team news

For PSG, Luis Enrique has made three changes to the side that beat Lille 4-1 at the weekend.

In defence, Willian Pacho comes in for Lucas Beraldo, while in midfield, Vitinha replaces Desire Doue.

In the attacking positions, Ousmane Dembele leads the line while Goncalo Ramos drops out for Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.

Chris Wilson5 March 2025 19:05

Team news

The line-ups should be released in the next five minutes, so here’s a reminder of the early team news.

PSG have a fully fit squad with no reported injury concerns. Warren Zaire-Emery has recently returned from an ankle injury and could replace Desire Doue in midfied, but Vitinha is more likely to start.

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia may return to the side with the in-form Ousmane Dembele returning to the central striker position and the dangerous Bradley Barcola taking up the other flank.

Cody Gakpo is a major doubt for Liverpool after picking up a knock on Tuesday, although the forward has travelled to Paris as part of the squad.

Arne Slot may use Diogo Jota or Darwin Nunez, or prefer to use Curtis Jones and Dominik Szoboszlai as ‘false-nines’ as he did against Manchester City. Liverpool can pick their strongest defence and midfield, but Conor Bradley and Joe Gomez are out.

The Champions League returns and its flaws leave an unintended benefit

There are a lot of elite footballers who still have the Champions League theme as their ringtone, and some will be actively playing it on the way to stadiums. Familiarity hasn’t dulled excitement. It’s fair to say that isn’t really from the relative laboriousness of the group stage, but rather the exquisite energy of the knockouts.

This week is where football history starts to be made, partly because of how visions of glory can be instantly consigned to the past. It is tension and tantalising opportunity all at once. Through that, there’s a distinctive thought, one even more striking than the sense many players will feel this week of stepping out into great stadiums. A good chunk of this season’s stars were children when watching Barcelona’s comeback against Paris Saint-Germain in 2017, the kind of game that made them first realise the unique magic of these nights.

That was obviously the case for Camp Nou’s current talents like Lamine Yamal, Pedri and Gavi but also stars like Jude Bellingham, Jamal Musiala, Ryan Gravenberch and arguably even William Saliba and Bukayo Saka. Such grandeur and mystique is what Uefa and all of football’s major stakeholders at least think they are striving for.