Big Match Feature: PSG v Man City

Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City meet at the Parc des Princes in the first leg of their semifinal with bothseeking to take another step towards a first Uefa Champions League title.

While enjoying plenty of domestic success in recent years, both clubs have found European glory harder to come by.Paris did reach last season's final for the first time only to lose to Bayern München; City are at this stage for only thesecond time, their last three campaigns having foundered in the quarterfinals.

Both clubs overcame German opposition to set up this semifinal, Paris gaining a measure of revenge by defeatingBayern while City got the better of Borussia Dortmund.

Paris or City could become the 23rd side to win the European Cup, and the first new name on the trophy sinceChelsea's 2012 triumph.

Previous meetings

City's only previous Uefa Champions League semifinal was secured with a win against Paris in the 2015/16quarterfinals. The first leg at the Parc des Princes finished 2-2, Kevin De Bruyne's 38th-minute opener for Cityoverturned by goals from Zlatan Ibrahimovic (41) and Adrien Rabiot (59) before Fernandinho's equaliser 18 minutesfrom time.

De Bruyne got the only goal 14 minutes from time in Manchester as Manuel Pellegrini's side prevailed against aParis side coached by Laurent Blanc.

De Bruyne, Fernandinho and Sergio Agüero played in both games for City, as did Ángel Di María for Paris. LayvinKurzawa was an unused Paris substitute in both matches, with Marquinhos on the bench in France before playing 90minutes in England, where Presnel Kimpembe was an unused replacement.

Paul Le Guen's Paris earned a goalless draw against a Manchester City side managed by Mark Hughes at the Cityof Manchester Stadium in the 2008/09 Uefa Cup group stage – City's first match against a French club. City finishedfirst in Group A with Paris third, both sides progressing to the round of 32. Both eventually lost in the quarterfinals,City going down 4-3 on aggregate to Hamburg while Paris were beaten 3-0 over two legs by Dynamo Kyiv.

Form guide

Paris

This is Paris's third European Cup semifinal (W1 L1):

1994/95 AC Milan L 0-3 (0-1 h, 0-2 a)

2019/20 Leipzig W 3-0

That 25-year gap between semifinal appearances is a Uefa Champions League record – beating Ajax's 22-yearabsence between 1997 and 2019.

In 2019/20 Paris became the fifth French team to reach the European Cup final, after Reims (1956, 1959), StÉtienne (1976), Marseille (1991, 1993) and Monaco (2004). Of those, only Marseille, in the inaugural Uefa Champions League final in 1993, lifted the trophy.

Paris would therefore become the third Ligue 1 club to reach multiple finals if they overcome City.

Paris also reached the semifinals of three Uefa Cup Winners' Cups and one Uefa Cup. Their record in those ties– which all took place between 1993 and 1997 – was W2 L2 with victories in the last two, against Deportivo La Coruñain 1995/96 and Liverpool in 1996/97, meaning last season's defeat of Leipzig made it three successive victories inEuropean semiffinals.

Paris have won six of their 10 games in this season's competition, including four in a row before they were held 1-1at home by Barcelona in the round of 16 second leg. That nevertheless completed a 5-2 aggregate success, KylianMbappé having scored a hat-trick in a 4-1 first-leg victory at the Camp Nou.

That win followed group stage victories at home against Leipzig (1-0), away at Manchester United (3-1) and – tobook their round of 16 place as Group H winners – 5-1 at home to Istanbul Basaksehir. Paris also beat the Turkishclub 2-0 away on Matchday 2, in between 2-1 defeats at home to United and away to Leipzig.

Paris then eliminated holders Bayern in the last eight, going through on away goals after a 3-2 first-leg win inGermany was followed by a 1-0 home defeat.

Mbappé has now scored eight goals in this season's Uefa Champions League, all in the last five matches, and is insecond place in the scoring charts, two behind Erling Haaland, whose Dortmund side were eliminated by City in thequarterfinals.

Ligue 1 champions for the seventh time in eight years in 2019/20, and ninth time overall, Paris also won both domestic cups last season. This is the French side's ninth successive Uefa Champions League campaign and 13thin total.

Paris reached their first European Cup final last season. They had beaten Dortmund in the round of 16 (1-2 a, 2-0 h),Atalanta in the one-off quarterfinal (2-1) and Leipzig in the semifinal en route to a 1-0 final defeat by Bayern.

The Parisians have now reached the knockout stages on their last nine Uefa Champions League appearances.They suffered three successive last-16 defeats prior to last season.

Under Thomas Tuchel – who was replaced as coach by Mauricio Pochettino in January this year – the French clubfinished first in a section also including Real Madrid, Club Brugge and Galatasaray in 2019/20. They won five of theirsix games, drawing the other, and conceded only two goals to finish five points above Madrid.

Paris had scored in 34 successive Uefa Champions League games, matching the competition record set by Madridbetween 2011 and 2014, before drawing a blank in last season's final. They found the net in their first nine matchesthis term, and also in 23 successive Uefa Champions League matches at the Parc des Princes, before failing toscore at home to Bayern in the quarterfinal second leg.

Paris have won 18 of their last 28 Uefa Champions League matches (D4 L6). The second-leg defeat by Bayernwas only their fifth in their last 60 European home games (W38 D17), although three of those have come in their lastten matches at the Parc des Princes.

Paris have lost their last two home games against English visitors, having also been beaten 3-1 by ManchesterUnited in the 2018/19 Uefa Champions League round of 16 second leg, a tie they lost on away goals (2-0 a). A 2-1defeat of Liverpool on 28 November 2018 is Paris's sole win in their last five home games against Premier Leagueclubs.

Paris have now lost three of their 11 home fixtures against English visitors (W4 D4), the other a 3-0 defeat againstChelsea in the 2004/05 Uefa Champions League group stage.

The 2018/19 defeat by United made Paris's record in two-legged knockout ties with English opponents W3 L4. Theyhave lost the last two; their last aggregate victory came against Chelsea in the 2015/16 Uefa Champions Leagueround of 16, a tie in which they won 2-1 both home and away.

Manchester City

City lost their only previous European Cup semifinal:

2015/16 Real Madrid L 0-1 (0-0 h, 0-1 a)

The Manchester club have played in two other Uefa competition semifinals, both in the European Cup Winners'Cup. They beat Schalke in 1969/70 (0-1 a, 5-1 h) but lost to Chelsea at the same stage the following season (0-1 a, 0-1 h).

City have therefore lost 1-0 in the away leg of all three previous Uefa semifinals.

City are bidding to become the 42nd club to reach the European Cup final, and the third newcomers in successiveseasons after Tottenham Hotspur in 2019 and Paris in 2020. They would be the 21st team to reach the UefaChampions League final.

City scored three goals in each of their first three Group C victories this season, beating Porto (3-1), Marseille andOlympiacos (both 3-0) before a 1-0 win in Greece on Matchday 4 secured progress. A goalless draw in Porto in theirpenultimate fixture confirmed City in first place before a closing 3-0 win at home to Marseille.

Josep Guardiola's side then beat Borussia Mönchengladbach 2-0 twice in the round of 16, with both games played inBudapest, before defeating Dortmund 2-1 home and away in the quarterfinals.

The goal scored by Dortmund's Marco Reus in the 84th minute of the first leg ended City's run without conceding aUefa Champions League goal at 790 minutes, since Luis Díaz's 14th-minute opener for Porto on Matchday 1. Therecord for the competition, set by Arsenal in 2005/06, is 995 minutes, with City now second in the all-time rankingshaving moved above Juventus (690 minutes).

City finished second in the 2019/20 Premier League and bowed out of the Uefa Champions League at the quarterfinal stage for the third season running, going down 3-1 against Lyon in their one-off tie in Lisbon. They had finishedfirst in their group with 14 points (W4 D2) before seeing off Real Madrid in the last 16, winning 2-1 away and at homeagainst the 13-time European champions.

This is the Citizens' 10th Uefa Champions League campaign; they have been involved every season since2011/12.

City have scored 56 goals in their last 23 Uefa Champions League matches; over the last three seasons theirrecord is W22 D4 L3 with 72 goals scored and 24 conceded.

Guardiola's team have won 11 of their last 16 away European matches (D3 L2), both defeats coming in England; thelast away game they lost abroad was at Shakhtar Donetsk (1-2) on Matchday 6 of the 2017/18 Uefa ChampionsLeague.

City's record against French clubs is W4 D3 L3, with 19 goals scored and 15 conceded.

After beating Paris in 2015/16, City's other two-legged knockout tie against a French side came against Monaco inthe 2016/17 round of 16, with Sergio Agüero scoring twice and Raheem Sterling and John Stones once apiece in a 5-3 home first-leg win; Guardiola's side would bow out on away goals, however, after a 3-1 loss in France. Mbappéscored in both legs for Monaco.

Last season's loss against Lyon made City's knockout record against France teams W1 L2.

This season's 3-0 win at Marseille on Matchday 2 ended City's four-game winless streak against French clubs (D1L3). That was their first win away against Ligue 1 opponents at the fourth attempt (D2 L1).

Links and trivia

Pochettino and Guardiola have faced each other 18 times as managers of Espanyol and Tottenham and Barcelonaand City respectively, with the current Paris boss winning only three compared to ten Guardiola victories.

Pochettino's Tottenham side did beat Guardiola's City in a dramatic Uefa Champions League quarterfinal in2018/19, going through on away goals after a 1-0 home win was followed by a 4-3 defeat in Manchester.

Riyad Mahrez was born in Sarcelles, a suburb of Paris, and played in France for Quimper at amateur level (2009/10)and for Ligue 2 side Le Havre as a professional (2010–2014) before moving to England.

Have also played in France:

Benjamin Mendy (Marseille 2013–16, Monaco 2016–17)

Bernardo Silva (Monaco 2015–17)

Aymeric Laporte was born in Agen in south-west France but, after spells with local sides SU Agen (2000–09) andBayonne (2009/10), he moved to Spain aged 16 to link up with Athletic Club in 2010.

Have played in England:

Ángel Di María (Manchester United 2014/15)

Ander Herrera (Manchester United 2014–19)

Idrissa Gueye (Aston Villa 2015/16, Everton 2016–19)

Moise Kean (Everton 2019/20)

Sergio Rico (Fulham loan 2018/19)

Pochettino was Kyle Walker's manager at Tottenham between 2014 and 2017, when the defender signed for City.

Have played together:

Kylian Mbappé & Bernardo Silva, Benjamin Mendy (Monaco 2016/17)

Moise Kean & João Cancelo (Juventus 2018/19)

On 1 August 2020 Danilo's Porto beat a Benfica side including Rúben Dias 2-1 in the Portuguese Cup final inCoimbra.

International teammates:

Ángel Di María, Mauro Icardi, Leandro Paredes & Sergio Agüero (Argentina)

Neymar, Marquinhos, Rafinha & Ederson, Gabriel Jesus, Fernandinho (Brazil)

Kylian Mbappé, Presnel Kimpembe, Layvin Kurzawa & Benjamin Mendy, Aymeric Laporte (France)

Julian Draxler, Thilo Kehrer & Ilkay Gündogan (Germany)

Danilo & Bernardo Silva, João Cancelo, Rúben Dias (Portugal)

Ander Herrera, Pablo Sarabia & Eric García, Rodri, Ferran Torres (Spain)

Mbappé scored twice as France beat Argentina 4-3 in the last 16 of their victorious 2018 Fifa World Cup campaign,Agüero getting one of the South American side's goals.

Latest News

Paris

Paris have won 19 of their last 25 matches in all competitions (D1 L5), scoring 59 goals and conceding 21. Theywere 3-1 victors at Metz on Saturday.

French Cup holders Paris reached the semifinals of this season's competition with a 5-0 win over Angers on 21April, Mauro Icardi scoring a hat-trick and Neymar also on target.

The hat-trick was Icardi's second for Paris; he hit three against St-Étienne last season in the Coupe de la Ligue.

Paris will visit Montpellier in the French Cup semifinals on 12 May, with the winners facing Monaco or fourth tier Rumilly-Vallières in the 19 May final at the Stade de France.

Kylian Mbappé has 19 goals in his last 14 Paris appearances, including a hat-trick and seven doubles, the mostrecent at Metz on Saturday. He also scored twice in a 3-2 victory at home to St-Étienne on 18 April, a game in whichIcardi struck an added-time winner; the Argentinian also found the net with a late penalty after coming off the bench atthe weekend.

Mbappé has now scored 89 goals for Paris in Ligue 1. Only Edinson Cavani (138 goals) and Zlatan Ibrahimovic(113) have more league goals for the club.

Mbappé has scored twice in eight Ligue 1 matches this season, more than any other player. He is Ligue 1's topscorer this season so far with 25 goals.

One of Mbappé’s doubles was in a 4-2 success at Lyon on 21 March, which brought up his 100th Ligue 1 goal on his142nd appearance. Aged 22 years 91 days, he is the youngest of the 89 players to reach a century of goals in thecompetition.

Paris have suffered eight Ligue 1 losses of the season, matching their total number of league defeats in 2010/11,when they finished fourth.

Paris have lost four of their last eight home games in all competitions (W3 D1).

Ángel Di María has 102 assists for Paris, one short of Safet Sušic's club record.

Marquinhos was replaced with an adductor injury after scoring Paris's second goal in the quarterfinal first leg inMunich and has not played since.

Keylor Navas made his first appearance since the quarterfinal second leg in the win at Metz after recovering from ashoulder injury; Abdou Diallo (calf) has been out since the second leg against Bayern.

Marco Verratti (thigh) and Rafinha (back) missed the cup win against Angers; Verratti returned to play 90 minutes atthe weekend.

Mbappé was substituted in the final minutes in Metz and left the field with his right thigh strapped.

Juan Bernat is still sidelined by a knee ligament injury and has not been included in Paris's Uefa ChampionsLeague squad. The club extended his contract until 2025 on 16 March.

On 26 April Paris extended Navas's contract for another year, keeping him at the club until 2024.

Neymar was included in the Uefa.com fans' Men's Team of the Year 2020.

Manchester City

City have lost two of their last five games in all competitions (W3), making it three losses in 33 fixtures; they won theother 30 games.

On Sunday City claimed the English League Cup for the fourth year in a row – and the sixth time in eight seasons –thanks to Aymeric Laporte's late goal in the final against Tottenham at Wembley that secured a 1-0 victory.

On 17 April, Josep Guardiola's side were beaten 1-0 by fellow Uefa Champions League semifinalists Chelsea inthe FA Cup semifinals, ending their bid for an unprecedented quadruple.

The loss to Chelsea was one of only three defeats for the Cityzens in 40 games in all competitions, since a 2-0Premier League reverse at Tottenham on 21 November (W34 D3).

City's 21-match winning run in all competitions had been ended by a 2-0 home derby defeat against ManchesterUnited on 7 March. Bruno Fernandes opened the scoring from the penalty spot after 101 seconds, the earliestPremier League goal City have conceded at the City of Manchester Stadium. That was also the first time City hadtrailed in 20 Premier League fixtures.

City came from a goal down to win 2-1 at Aston Villa on 21 April despite John Stones' 44th-minute red card. JohnMcGinn put the home side in front after 20 seconds, the second quickest goal City have conceded in Premier Leaguehistory.

Sergio Agüero has started only five Premier League games this season because of knee and hamstring problems.His goal in a 3-0 win at Fulham on 13 March was his first in the league since 21 January 2020; he has not playedsince 3 April although he was an unused substitute on Sunday.

On 29 March it was confirmed Agüero will leave City when his contract expires this summer. The Argentinian, whojoined in 2011, is the club's record goalscorer with 257 goals in 385 appearances.

City have won their last 17 away games in all competitions, surpassing the previous record for an English top-flightteam of 11 they set themselves between May and November 2017.

Ilkay Gündogan has scored ten goals in 16 Premier League appearances in 2021.

Kevin De Bruyne, who signed a contract extension until 2025 on 7 April, suffered an ankle injury in the FA Cupdefeat by Chelsea, returning to play 90 minutes on Sunday.

De Bruyne was included in the Uefa.com fans' Men's Team of the Year 2020.