All about the Champions League match against Paris

The final and decisi­ve match of the Cham­pi­ons League group stage is upon us, and no less than Paris Saint-Ger­main is coming to the Neckar­sta­di­on.

After VfB’s first com­pe­ti­ti­ve defeat of the sea­son, some fans are start­ing to worry. “If we can’t even beat Mainz 05, how are we sup­po­sed to stand a chan­ce against Paris Saint-Ger­main?!” Well, let me reassu­re you—this is com­ple­te­ly nor­mal. It’s not uncom­mon for a team, espe­ci­al­ly one play­ing inter­na­tio­nal­ly for the first time (in a long time), to put in a com­ple­te­ly lack­lus­ter Bun­des­li­ga per­for­mance bet­ween two Euro­pean matches. Tac­tics expert Tobi­as Escher often says that a team can fall into an emo­tio­nal slump, making it dif­fi­cult to imme­dia­te­ly moti­va­te them­sel­ves for the mun­da­ne Bun­des­li­ga rou­ti­ne after the magic of a Euro­pean night. Of cour­se, I would view this loss dif­fer­ent­ly if the first four games had been just as poor, but one bad game does not defi­ne a sea­son. So let’s put Mainz 05 behind us and look ahead.

And what lies ahead is a Euro­pean foot­ball giant. Paris Saint-Ger­main FC is a team that has been a domi­nant force in foot­ball ever sin­ce the Qata­ris took over in the year of our Lord 2011. At least, that was the plan. Four­teen years of invest­ment have resul­ted in exact­ly zero inter­na­tio­nal titles. And that’s despi­te having Mes­si, Ney­mar, and Mbap­pé on the pitch at the same time. Qatar’s inter­na­tio­nal suc­cess is about as impres­si­ve as Red Bull’s enti­re fran­chise sys­tem in Euro­pe. Though, to be fair, PSG and Leip­zig are not enti­re­ly comparable—after all, PSG’s histo­ry dates back to the 1970s, when Paris FC and Sta­de 1904 Saint-Ger­main mer­ged to form Paris Saint-Ger­main. Even befo­re the take­over, they had dome­stic (French cham­pi­ons in 1986 and 1994) and inter­na­tio­nal (win­ners of the 1996 Cup Win­ners’ Cup) suc­cess and attrac­ted glo­bal stars like Ronald­in­ho, Jay-Jay Okocha, and Geor­ge Weah. But sin­ce the take­over, the Cham­pi­ons League hasn’t quite work­ed out for them, and this sea­son, PSG’s star-stud­ded squad looks far from domi­nant. They curr­ent­ly sit tied on points with VfB in 22nd place with 10 points, and if they lose at the Neckar­sta­di­on, their eli­mi­na­ti­on wouldn’t be out of the ques­ti­on.

Just like VfB, PSG would advan­ce with a draw under the new Cham­pi­ons League for­mat. A non-aggres­si­on pact lea­ding to a shared point is the­r­e­fo­re a curious but pos­si­ble sce­na­rio. Howe­ver, I find it unli­kely, as final group pla­ce­ment will influence oppo­nent sel­ec­tion, and neither PSG nor VfB would want to end up facing a top team in the next round.

Squad Situation

In addi­ti­on to the long-term absen­tees, cen­ter-back Rou­ault is now sus­pen­ded due to yel­low card accu­mu­la­ti­on and can only return for the knock­out stage. Goal­kee­per Alex Nübel is doubtful due to ill­ness.

Predicted Lineup

The usu­al VfB set­up in the Cham­pi­ons League, given that Wol­te­ma­de and JBL are unavailable. I could see Lewe­ling start­ing ins­tead of Füh­rich, but for now, I’m going with Füh­rich.

Statistics

This will actual­ly be the first-ever mee­ting bet­ween the­se two clubs. PSG will be the sixth French oppo­nent that VfB has faced. In total, VfB has play­ed nine matches against French teams, with a balan­ced record: three wins, three draws, and three los­ses. The last Fran­co-Swa­bi­an duel was in the 2007/08 Cham­pi­ons League, when VfB lost twice to Olym­pi­que Lyon. The last suc­cess against a French team came in the 2002 UEFA Inter­to­to Cup final, when VfB defea­ted Lil­le OSC 2–0 to qua­li­fy for the UEFA Cup.

Conclusion

A big name awaits VfB in this final group stage match. PSG has been strugg­ling in the Cham­pi­ons League and looks vul­nerable. While we enter the game as under­dogs, with strong team per­for­mance, effort, and a bit of luck, three points and pro­gres­si­on to the next round are abso­lut­e­ly within reach.

Pic­tu­re: © Mike Hewitt/Getty Images

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