Twelve months ago, when Paris Saint-Germain and Liverpool shared a Champions League pitch at Anfield, the English side was steamrolling its way to a Premier League trophy, earning high praise from PSG manager Luis Enrique, who called Jurgen Klopp’s outfit “an almost perfect team”. A lot can change in a year in top-flight European football, and as the two historic clubs prepare to lock horns once again in the 2025-26 Champions League quarter-finals, the tables have turned dramatically. The opening leg of the tie, set to kick off in Paris on Wednesday, sees a red-hot PSG enter the matchup as overwhelming favorites, their trajectories having diverged sharply from the pair’s last encounter.
That 2024 Champions League last-16 clash proved to be a pivotal moment for PSG, as they held their nerve in a penalty shootout at Anfield to knock Liverpool out, a win that propelled them to their first-ever Champions League title. That result came after the French giants dominated the first leg in Paris but fell to a 1-0 defeat, forcing them to claw back the deficit on enemy soil to force penalties. In the year since that night, both clubs have followed wildly different paths.
For Liverpool, Arne Slot’s side managed to grind out the 2024-25 Premier League title despite a late-season slump that followed their exit from Europe. This campaign, however, has been nothing short of a massive disappointment for the Merseyside club. Heading into Wednesday’s clash at Parc des Princes, Liverpool is reeling from a demoralizing 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Manchester City in the FA Cup quarter-finals, leaving the squad in a deeply downbeat mood.
After the humbling defeat to City, Slot publicly called out his side for a lack of fighting spirit, while captain Virgil van Dijk admitted the team had given up and acknowledged the challenge of lifting their form against PSG would be enormous. “But we have a responsibility, not only to ourselves but especially to the fans and, if we want to make something out of this season, we have to try and do something special in the next three games,” van Dijk told reporters, noting the Champions League tie falls between a tricky league fixture against Fulham. “The matter of fact is now, PSG are waiting for us. It will be so tough again. So we have to be ready mentally as soon as possible.”
Liverpool’s recent form backs up the collective pessimism: the side has only claimed one win in its last five outings, and has suffered a staggering 15 defeats across all competitions this season. Currently sitting fifth in the Premier League table, the club’s most realistic top target for the remainder of the campaign is now securing a spot in next season’s Champions League, rather than challenging for domestic or European silverware.
In stark contrast, PSG, despite a season interrupted by frequent injury setbacks, appears to be hitting their peak form at exactly the right time. A 3-1 victory over Toulouse last Friday, headlined by a sensational solo goal from reigning Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembele, stretched PSG’s lead at the top of Ligue 1 to four points over second-place Lens, with a game in hand still to play. For the French giants, however, the Champions League remains the ultimate priority – so much so that the Ligue de Football Professionnel granted PSG’s request to postpone this weekend’s crucial away trip to Lens to allow the squad to focus entirely on preparing for Liverpool.
“I think we have shown for a long time that we are ready, regardless of the competition, but there are obviously things we can improve,” Luis Enrique told reporters ahead of the tie. Dembele, who scored against Liverpool at Anfield last season, is fully fit and in scintillating form, while Georgian winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia proved the difference-maker in the previous round, where PSG dismantled Chelsea 8-2 on aggregate. It’s worth noting that Wednesday’s clash will be PSG’s 14th match against a Premier League opponent since January 2025, giving the side extensive experience against English opposition’s physical and tactical style.
PSG does carry one clear weakness into the tie, however: the club has yet to adequately replace star goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, the hero of last season’s penalty shootout who made a high-profile move to Manchester City over the summer. Lucas Chevalier was signed as Donnarumma’s replacement, but he has since lost his starting spot to Russian keeper Matvey Safonov, who made two costly, glaring errors that led to goals against Toulouse at the weekend. Luis Enrique was quick to defend his keeper, telling reporters: “A goalkeeper is like any other player. They can make mistakes, because that is normal in football.”
For Liverpool, the X-factor could well be forward Hugo Ekitike, the club’s leading goalscorer this season with 17 goals across all competitions, who is set to face his old club for the first time since leaving PSG. The 23-year-old Frenchman joined PSG from Reims in 2022, but managed just four goals in 18 months in Paris, struggling to break into a star-studded attacking line that featured Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi and Neymar. After moving to Eintracht Frankfurt, then to Liverpool, Ekitike has revitalized his career, and now returns to France as a serious contender for a starting spot in France’s 2026 World Cup squad. Dembele, Ekitike’s France international teammate, was full of praise for the forward ahead of the clash: “Hugo is a great player. He is really in form so we are just hoping he won’t be against us.”