2024-25 UEFA Champions League Semi-Finals: First Leg – Arsenal vs PSG

Arsenal meet PSG in the first leg of their 2024-25 UEFA Champions League semi-final.

Arsenal stunned reigning champions, Real Madrid in the Quarter-Finals to set up this tie, whilst PSG fought off Aston Villa to deny Unai Emery’s Villains an all-English semi-final against Mikel Arteta’s Gunners.

 

Team News

Thomas Partey is suspended for Arsenal after he picked up his third booking of the Champions League campaign in a 2-1 win at Real Madrid earlier this month.

Riccardo Calafiori, Ben White (both knee) and Mikel Merino (knock) face late fitness checks.

Gabriel, Kai Havertz (both hamstring), Gabriel Jesus, Takehiro Tomiyasu (both knee) and Jorginho (rib) remain absent.

PSG have no fresh injury concerns to report following their 3-1 Ligue 1 defeat to Nice, with a full squad available for selection.

 

When is Kick-Off?

Arsenal host PSG at Emirates Stadium on Tuesday 29 April at 8pm BST, live on Amazon Prime in the UK.

 

Stat Attack

• Arsenal are yet to lose to PSG in the Champions League (W1, D2).
• PSG are yet to win away at Arsenal in the Champions League (D1, L1).
• Arsenal have scored twice in each of their two previous home games against PSG in the Champions League.
• Declan Rice has scored three goals in Arsenal’s last two home games in this competition (W1, D1).
• Nuno Mendes has scored in PSG’s last two matches in this competition (W1, L1).

 

Prediction

With the Premier League title now officially won by Liverpool, Arsenal now can have the luxury of fully focusing on this semi-final tie but they will need to be much better defensively after they twice blew one-goal leads against Crystal Palace through sloppy marking.

PSG meanwhile absolutely suffocated Villa with their attacking press from the get-go in both legs of their Quarter-Final but if Arsenal can sit in and nullify their threats like they did against Real Madrid, I wouldn’t be surprised if PSG need to show more creativity if want to unlock the Gunners’ back-lines.

Another issue for PSG is the fact that they’re yet to win away at Arsenal in this competition and having lost 2-0 on their visit in the league phase, they simply have to be more clinical but I do think that Arsenal will have enough to get the first-leg advantage.

Prediction: Arsenal 2-1 PSG

Result: Arsenal 0-1 PSG