Next Tuesday, September 28, Paris Saint-Germain are set to host Manchester City at the Parc des Princes in a game that means more than just France vs England.
The encounter stands for a chance at redemption from last year’s Champions League semi-final, for Qatar vs United Arab Emirates, for money vs money, but most importantly for Lionel Messi vs Pep Guardiola.
As well as finding out who goes top of Group A, we should be in for a treat as the reunion between the Argentine player and the Catalan coach is always a spectacle.
As mentioned above, the meeting between these two European giants will have an element of revenge as PSG came so close to two Champions League finals in as many years, before falling short to Pep’s Sky Blues in the semi-finals.
This time round, however, the French side have Messi in their ranks.
The 34-year-old did pick up an injury against Lyon and has been left out of the PSG squad that will face Metz on Wednesday, September 22, though.
We will have to wait until Friday to find out whether or not Messi will be risked at the weekend before PSG’s Manchester City encounter.
The pair’s past encounters
On November 1, 2016, Messi visited the Etihad Stadium in the group stage of the Champions League.
After Messi opened the scoring, the Citizens came back to win the match 3-1.
Despite City getting the win that day, however, they had lost the first leg in that group stage 4-0 to Barcelona after a hat-trick from Messi.
The year before, Messi featured against Pep’s Bayern Munich in the semi-finals of the Champions League in a game that saw Barcelona progress to the final (and win) after a 5-3 aggregate victory for the Catalan side.
Messi’s record against Pep’s sides has been traditionally good, however this Manchester City side are no laughing matter, so it will be a tough test for the Argentine’s team.
