Though Paris Saint-Germain finished last season firmly in the bottom half of the Ligue 1 table, les Parisiens have started this campaign in a bright style, taking advantage of the struggles of France’s big names to leap into the top six. Antoine Kombouare’s men have also been doing well in Europe and meet Karpaty Lviv in the French capital with some confidence.
Only victory in the Coupe de France last season, which led to this European adventure, was enough to save PSG’s face last term, and potentially Kombouare’s job. Yet they are making up for lost time by proving a stronger force against Ligue 1’s lesser lights, enjoying a three match unbeaten domestic run, during which they’ve yet to leak a goal.
In Europe, they’ve overcome the challenge of Maccabi Tel Aviv to reach the group stages, and with president Robin Leproux pushing for les Rouge et Bleu to succeed on multiple fronts they’ve also started confidently on the continent, surprising Sevilla 1-0 with a severely rotated side.
Against Karpaty, PSG will hope to affirm their status as a potential presence in the knock-out stages by recording a victory and maintaining a 10 match unbeaten run in Europe that has seen them go more than 450 minutes at the Parc des Princes without conceding.
Underdogs
Karpaty’s start to the Europa League was nearly glorious. Against a much fancied and highly rated Borussia Dortmund side they cut themselves a 3-2 advantage going into the closing stages but were undone in the final three minutes as they twice conceded.
Having defeated Galatasaray in the play-off round on away goals, the Ukrainians were already aware that they could stand toe-to-toe successfully with some of Europe’s biggest clubs, but drawn against BVB, PSG and Sevilla, qualification for the knock-out stages was always likely to be a tough ask.
Home form was likely to be crucial to Oleh Kononov’s side, who now face a severely uphill task if their objective of the top two is to be met.
With striker William Batista recently ruled out for the next month due to a knee injury, that only adds to the problems of the Group J minnows, who are presently occupying fourth position in their domestic top flight. Nevertheless, this group of players cannot be underestimated.
Prediction
PSG 2-0 Karpaty Lviv 
