Paris Saint-Germain aim to overcome injuries in Champions League showdown with struggling Athletic Club
PSG are second domestically as their many absences have led to a bumpy first half of the season
It has been a strange run for Paris Saint-Germain as a mixture of injuries and bad luck has seen them fall to second in Ligue 1 behind Lens. Luis Enrique's men will have yet another blow as they travel to face Athletic Club, with Ousmane Dembele and Lucas Chevalier being ruled out of the match. Dembele will miss out due to illness, while their new starting keeper, Chevalier, is recovering from an ankle injury. With five wins in their last five matches, PSG will feel good about their chances despite the injuries, but their 5-3 victory over Tottenham last time out in Champions League play also shows what can happen if they don't focus.
How to watch Athletic Club vs. PSG, odds
- Date: Wednesday, Dec. 10 | Time: 3 p.m. ET
- Location: Estadio de San Mamés -- Bilbao, Spain
- Live stream: Paramount+
- Odds: Athletic Club +370; Draw +280; PSG -135
Dealing with injuries has been the name of the game for the Parisians this season, and they'll still be without Achraf Hakimi, who is facing a race against time to recover from an ankle injury before the Africa Cup of Nations. But with those injuries, young players such as Senny Mayulu and Ibrahim Mbaye have been able to play significant minutes, which will be important in the long run. This is similar to last season, when teenagers were part of PSG's run to winning the Champions League, and for them to repeat as champions, depth will be important yet again.
Travelling away from home, they'll face an Athletic Club side that has struggled this season. Having won only two of their last five matches, this is a team on only four points through five Champions League fixtures. The jump from Europa League to Champions League was expected to bring struggles for the side, but no one could've predicted that they'd be this significant. Only scoring four goals in the league phase so far, there are only three sides with fewer goals to their name, and things won't get any easier facing PSG on Wednesday.
Inaki and Nico Williams haven't been enough to push this team into contention, and facing PSG's attack, they'll need everything that they can get. No team has scored more goals than PSG's 19 during he league phase, as even without Dembele available, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia has paced the attack and the team has fallen in line to create chances.
Losing this match could all but end Athletic's chances of making it out of the league phase, but in order to win, Ernesto Valverde's side will have to show something that they have yet to do this season to topple a team as dangerous as PSG.
