Manchester United vs. Paris Saint-Germain

13 February 2019

An in-form Manchester United welcome a severely weakened Paris Saint-Germain team to Old Trafford in the first leg of the Champions League last-16 tie.

The Red Devils are going through an impressive period under the interim boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, having secured ten wins in 11 outings across all competitions (W10, D1). Not only they are unbeaten after Jose Mourinho’s farewell, but the 3-time Champions League winners seem to have managed to overcome their immense defensive problems, having restricted their rivals to a maximum of one goal per match in all 11 games under the Norwegian manager. What’s more, Man Utd have scored over 1.5 goals per match nine times in that period, putting the ball in the back of the net in the first half in every single clash during the process. Another encouraging fact for the hosts is that they are unbeaten in their last ten competitive home clashes (W7, D2), scoring 2+ match goals eight times during the run.

Meanwhile, Thomas Tuchel and his players head toward Old Trafford without Neymar, Edinson Cavani, and Marco Verratti, as all are expected to skip the meeting due to injury setbacks. Although the Parisians come into this encounter after a narrow 1-0 win over Bordeaux, they’ve been dealing with huge problems after the January break. The reigning Ligue 1 holders have been dominating the national championship this campaign but have failed to replicate the same performance in Europe. Although they’ve finished top of Group C, Tuchel’s men have pulled off just three wins during the group stage, failing to keep a clean sheet in all six games in the opening stage of the competition. However, the French heavyweights have improved their defensive game in 2019, keeping a clean slate in six of nine competitive meetings this year.