Overview
Starting their journey to defend the title, Paris Saint-Germain will return to the Champions League arena when hosting Atalanta at Parc des Princes.
Last season, PSG finally made a breakthrough to lift the prestigious silver cup thanks to their spectacular performance in the final. Now, the defending champions will open the 2025-2026 campaign right at home against Atalanta.
The reign of coach Luis Enrique has opened the greatest era in PSG's history. They finally conquered the European title.
In his first season leading the capital team, the Spanish strategist brought home a double domestic title. In his second season, he and his youth team also successfully completed the treble: winning Ligue 1, Coupe de France and Champions League.
After a slow start, PSG passed the group stage and defeated the strongest opponents in England, before convincingly defeating Inter Milan. They have won the biggest win in the history of Champions League finals.
However, PSG missed the new FIFA Club World Cup 2025 title, when a surprise defeat in the decisive match ended their dream of a quarter-final draw.
After a short summer break, PSG beat Tottenham Hotspur to win the UEFA Super Cup, then returned to Ligue 1 with 2 1-0 won at the minimum. They then played explosively and scored 6 goals against Toulouse.
Last weekend, Bradley Barcola's double helped PSG overcome Lens at the Parc des Princes - which was also where they started their journey to defend the European title.
PSG have only met Atalanta once before, in the quarter-finals of the 2020 Champions League. This was a match in Lisbon due to the impact of COVID-19 and PSG won 2-1. The capital team will certainly aim for a similar result in the early morning of tomorrow.
The quarter-final achievement is still Atalanta's most memorable milestone in the number one arena in Europe, but the Bergamo team has repeatedly exceeded expectations.
As the 2024 Europa League champions, Atalanta continued to participate in the knockout round of the Champions League last season, before their journey gradually declined.
They set a club record with a series of 11 consecutive wins to take the top spot in Serie A last season at Christmas. They also made their mark with their biggest home win in European competition (5-0 against Sturm Graz) and a resounding away win (6-1 against Young Boys). However, Atalanta could not maintain that impressive form.
The defeat to Club Brugge in the Champions League turned out to be a turning point that put their season in crisis. And in the end, they only finished in third place in Serie A, despite still achieving the highest total points in the club's history.
As predicted, Gian Piero Gasperini ended his glorious 9-year reign, handing over the coaching position to former student at Genoa, Ivan Juric.
The Croatian strategist's experience in Europe is still quite limited. In the Europa League last season, he won only 1 of 4 matches in his short time leading Roma - which was also Gasperini's new destination.
Juric took 3 official matches to get his first victory with Atalanta. After drawing with Parma and Pisa, Atalantia exploded with a 4-1 victory over Lecce last weekend.
Now, the biggest challenge awaits this coach. They will have to visit the Parc des Princes. However, Atalanta still have reason to be confident as they are maintaining a streak of 15 consecutive away goals in the European Cup, while being unbeaten in the last 8 matches.
Expected lineup:
PSG: Chevalier, Hakimi, Marquinhos, Pacho, Mendes, Neves, Vitinha, Ruiz, Mbaye, Ramos, Barcola.
Atalanta: Carnesecchi, Scalvini, Hien, Djimsiti, Bellanova, De Roon, Pasalic, Zalewski, De Ketelaere, Maldini, Krstovic.
The match between PSG and Atalanta takes place at 2:00 am on September 18 (Vietnam time).
