EA Guingamp’s Stade du Roudourou will host Stade Brestois 29 and Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday as the UEFA Champions League knockout round playoffs begin with an all-French tie. Ordinarily a Ligue 1 clash, the league phase results combined to create this fixture with all four of France’s UCL representatives advancing towards to at least these playoffs. Eric Roy’s Brest are in good form after beating Troyes in the Coupe de France and Nantes in Ligue 1 last week. Luis Enrique’s PSG thumped their hosts 5-2 recently as part of a 30-game unbeaten run against the Pirates who last beat Paris back in 1985.
Les Parisiens remain in search of their first Champions League title and French soccer’s second after Olympique de Marseille, but they left it late to turn their slow start to this edition around with one win from their first five games before three consecutive victories at the end. Away wins over Red Bull Salzburg and VfB Stuttgart either side of a sensational fightback win at home to Manchester City has formed part of an impressive run of form — 16 games unbeaten — which also included a thumping win over AS Monaco last week. Luis Enrique, Vitinha, Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes all extended their contracts recently
Here’s our storylines, how you can watch the match and more:
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Pardeep Cattry
How to watch and odds
- Date: Tuesday, February 11 | Time: 12:45 p.m. ET
- Location: Stade du Roudourou – Guingamp, France
- Watch: Paramount+
- Odds: Brest +650; Draw +400; PSG -275
Don’t miss any of the Champions League. As always, you can catch all of our coverage across Paramount+, CBS Sports Network and CBS Sports Golazo Network all season long.
League phase so far
Brest impressed early on with three wins from four unbeaten, including a draw against Bayer Leverkusen, but struggled against the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid and Shakhtar Donetsk, although a win over PSV Eindhoven sent them into the playoffs. The last French club to enjoy such a good debut campaign at Europe’s top table was Nice reaching the knockouts back in 1956-57’s European Cup. PSG and SB29 both picked up 13 points in the league phase with goal difference earning Paris a seeded playoff berth. The last time that Les Parisiens won four games in a row in the UCL was back in early 2021.
Team news
Brest: Bradley Locko and Karamoko Dembele are both out while Jonas Martin is also a doubt. Roy has no other worries though and is likely to go with Ludovic Ajorque up top. The 30-year-old applied more pressure in opposition territory than anyone else in the league phase and will be looking to force a mistake or two out of the Parisien back line.
Possible Brest XI: Bizot; Lala, Chardonnet, Coulibaly, Haidara; Camara, Lees-Melou, Magnetti; Faivre, Ajorque, Balde.
PSG: Warren Zaire-Emery and Ibrahim Mbaye are both out for the trip to Brittany while Khvicha Kvaratskhelia is in line for his UCL debut with Paris. Ousmane Dembele has eight goals from three games and is likely to lead the attack as a false nine with Bradley Barcola completing a talented frontline.
Possible PSG XI: Donnarumma; Hakimi, Marquinhos, Pacho, Mendes; Ruiz, Vitinha, Lee; Barcola, Dembele, Kvaratskhelia.
Prediction
Expect PSG to win this one fairly convincingly over two legs although both sides scoring in this opening leg would not be a huge surprise. Pick: Brest 1, PSG 3.
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