Winner of its second match of the new “league phase” of the Champions League, Tuesday evening in Salzburg (0-3), PSG logically relaunches itself in the race for the top 24. With seven points and a goal difference from zero, Luis Enrique’s team finds itself 24th and virtually last qualified for the play-offs. We are obviously far from the final ranking for Paris, which will face Manchester City at the Parc des Princes on January 22 before finishing in Stuttgart on Wednesday January 29.
If they get their ticket to the round of 16, the Rouge et Bleu still have a good chance of finishing in 21st, 22nd, 23rd, or 24th place. As a reminder, the table for the knockout phase is half defined and a draw will give the exact posters in the play-offs and the round of 16. As things currently stand, PSG, 24th, will face either 9th or 10th, therefore Atalanta or Arsenal, with an away return match. But Stade Brestois (currently 5th), AS Monaco (11th) and Losc (13th) could also find themselves in this part of the ranking.
PSG against Arsenal then Bayern?
In short, PSG could well fall on heavy ground by finishing 23rd or 24th, especially if it is the formidable Atalanta team of Gian Piero Gasperini or Arsenal, one of the best teams in the Premier League , led by Mikel Arteta who passed through PSG during the 2001-2002 season on loan from Barça.
The other concern, in this table of the elimination phase which takes into account the current ranking, is that the winners of the play-offs between PSG and Dinamo Zagreb against Atalanta and Arsenal must face Borussia Dortmund or Bayern Munich , the current 7th and 8th in the league stage. For PSG, it would be a revenge against BVB, its executioner in the semi-finals of the C1 last spring, or a second clash against Vincent Kompany’s Bayern after the victory of the Munich team on the 26 last November.
