In their first visit to Stadium TFC since the 2018-19 season, Paris Saint-Germain will take on the reigning Ligue 2 champions Toulouse on Wednesday.
On Sunday, the defending top-flight French champions suffered their first setback of the new Ligue 1 campaign, drawing Monaco 1-1, while Les Violets lost for the first time this season, 3-1 at Nantes.
Match preview
© Reuters
Making their first appearance in the top-flight since 2019-20, the club from Haute-Garonne have begun the season well, with five points to sit in the middle of the table after four matches.
Beginning a Ligue 1 campaign well is not unusual for Les Pitchouns, who had seven points after four games in their previous appearance in this competition.
Unfortunately, they failed to maintain that early consistency in 2019-20, winning only one domestic affair after matchday four, before the campaign was cancelled due to COVID and Toulouse were relegated into Ligue 2.
Philippe Montanier will be pleased with the starts that his player have given him, though they have missed opportunities to climb higher up the table, dropping seven points when leading in the second half this season, including last Sunday, when Toulouse conceded three times in 11 minutes versus La Maison Jaune.
Heading into this match, Le Tefece have only lost one of their previous 18 home matches in all competitions, with their last defeat at Stadium TFC coming at the Coupe de France in January when they were stunned 1-0 by Championnat National 2 side FC Versailles 78.
Toulouse have failed to win their last nine matches played at Stadium TFC in Ligue 1, though they avoided setting the longest home losing streak in the history of this competition by drawing Nice 1-1 in their opener.
Losing a top-flight fixture has often sent Le Tef into a downward spiral as they lost successive matches on three occasions in the 2019-20 competition, suffering losing streaks of two, 11 and six games that season.
© Reuters
Following three convincing victories to begin the domestic campaign, Les Parisiens were snake bit at home to Les Monegasques on Sunday as the visitors matched the home side player for player, causing all sorts of problems for the home side in the opening half hour.
That was the first time that PSG had trailed a Ligue 1 affair since Matchday 35 of last season when Kevin Gameiro put Strasbourg in front after three minutes in a game which ended in a 3-3 draw.
Despite going behind to a Kevin Volland strike in the 20th minute on Sunday, PSG managed to bring their wing-backs more into the game in the second half, getting higher up the field, forcing Monaco into a very low block, before finding an equaliser with 20 minutes remaining.
As impressive as this team have looked in the early portion of the season, scoring 18 goals while conceding only four, they have also been unlucky not to find the back of the net more.
PSG have struck the woodwork 27 times in league play since last season, more times than any other French club over that period.
Paris became the first French team to score three goals or more in six consecutive away fixtures in this competition when Christophe Galtier's men put seven past Lille earlier this month, the biggest domestic triumph for this club since putting nine in the Guingamp goal in a 2018-19 victory (9-0).
In just four domestic matches, PSG have already found the back of the net 18 times, the most tallies by a side at this competition since Rennes scored 20 goals in their first four fixtures of the 1950-51 campaign.
- D
- W
- D
- L
- W
- W
- W
- D
- W
- W
- W
- W
- D
Team News
© Reuters
Zakaria Aboukhlal scored his first of the season for Toulouse in their defeat to Nantes this past weekend, with Branco van den Boomen collecting his team-leading second assist of the campaign.
The Golden Boot winner of Ligue 2 last season, Rhys Healey has one goal so far domestically for Les Violets, with Rafael Ratao and Thijs Dallinga leading the way for them with two a piece.
Ado Onaiwu, who had 10 tallies last season, is still searching for his first in the top flight, while goalkeeper Maxime Dupe has one clean sheet.
Healey is out with an ACL injury, Nathan Ngoumou has a sore groin, and there was one change made to the starting 11 versus Les Canaris, as Yanis Begraoui replaced Moussa Diarra.
Three PSG players occupy the top three scoring spots in Ligue 1 thus far, with Neymar in first after tallying his sixth goal of the season this past weekend, followed by Kylian Mbappe, who has four and Lionel Messi sits third with three.
Neymar also leads the league in assists with six, four more than Messi and Nuno Mendes, Gianluigi Donnarumma has one clean sheet, Achraf Hakimi has two goals plus an assist and Marquinhos has tallied once.
Julian Draxler could be fully recovered from his knee injury by next weekend, while Vitinha is eligible to return from his red card suspension.
Toulouse possible starting lineup:
Dupe; Aboukhlal, Nicolaisen, Rouault, Desler; Ratao, van den Boomen, Spierings, Dejaegere, Chaibi; Dallinga
Paris Saint-Germain possible starting lineup:
Donnarumma; Bernat, Kimpembe, Marquinhos; Pereira, Verratti, Sanches, Hakimi; Icardi, Neymar; Mbappe
We say: Toulouse 0-3 Paris Saint-Germain
We are only four matches into the new campaign, and already it looks as though les Parisiens will run away with the Ligue 1 title, so we do not expect the newly promoted Toulouse to give them any difficulties on Wednesday.
Les Pitchouns have lost five straight top-flight fixtures versus PSG, scoring only once in their last six games against them, while they have conceded four goals or more in two of the previous five encounters versus Les Rouge et Bleu.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Top tip
Joel Lefevre
