Champions League week is here! PSG v Barça week is here! The wait will finally be over on Wednesday at 9pm CEST when the ball starts rolling at Parc des Princes as two of the biggest teams in Europe go head to head in what promises to be a scrumptious battle for a place in the semi-finals of Europe’s premier club competition.
This game has to split what until now has been a very tight balance between the teams over the years. In 12 meetings, there have been four wins for each side and also four draws. And this season, both teams have also been posting remarkably comparable records.
Barça has the second highest possession count in Europe (64%), only topped by PSG themselves with 65.86%. Possession should, in theory, lead to shots, and that logic certainly prevails in this case, with the Catalans shooting 15.88 times a game and the Parisians 15.67. The two teams have also been receiving similar number of shots on their own goals (11.19 for Barça and 11.88 for PSG), although Barça are better at making sure those efforts aren’t on target, with just 3.7 compared to 4.36 for the French outfit.
Gündogan gets most time
Turning to individual stats, Barça has three players who have been on for more than 3,000 minutes this season (Gündoğan with 3,465, Kounde with 3,261 and Lewandowski with 3,100) while only Kylian Mbappé (3,193) and goalkeeper Donnarumma (3,070) have done so for PSG.
Midfielder Ilkay Gündoğan also leads both sides for recoveries (217), showing just how important he is in Xavi’s plans. The German leads the Champions League for passes through the opposing defence (19) and also has three assists in the competition, and only needs two more to match the club record of five set by Jordi Alba in 2018/19.
