Arsenal vs PSG live updates: Champions League predictions, team news and latest

If you’re currently in the U.S. and excited about the return of the Champions League to your football schedule, then chances are you’re glad to have CBS Sports’ coverage back too.

Well, our brilliant journalist Adam Crafton took in things behind the scenes at the channel, including this little nugget from Pete Radovich — their coordinating producer of UEFA Champions League coverage:

💬 “Thierry Henry says he gets asked more about CBS now than Arsenal. He will tell you that straight up. That to me is wild.

“This summer, I was in a taxi in Croatia. The driver asked me where I’m from. I told him New York. He’s like, ‘Oh, you’re into sports?...My favourite sports show is in the U.S.’. A taxi driver in f****** Croatia!

“He’s saying ‘I don’t know if you’ve ever seen it; Thierry Henry, Kate Abdo, Micah Richards. It’s hilarious. I love that show. Have you ever seen it?’.

“Four years ago, if you told me people outside of America would know our show, that is truly bigger than we could have ever dreamt. That’s the fun part. The hard part is staying relevant and getting better.”

There’s much more where that came from too — you can give Adam’s superb piece a read in full below.

You may have heard that the Champions League is different from this season onwards, but been short on finding the time to check out how.

Therefore, let me bring you a quick-fire guide:

• Rather than it starting with lots of small groups, there is now one big league phase with all 36 clubs in it.
• Each team plays eight games, four at home and four away.
• The top eight will qualify for the knockout stage.
• The 16 teams below them will have a two-legged play-off to join them in the round of 16.

That’s basically it! All the teams in the league have been split into tiers, to make sure the difficulty of their eight games are spread evenly across opponents of varying quality.

There’s a bit more detail on that below, so feel free to scroll down and catch up on the feed.

As for Paris Saint-Germain, they also struggled massively to get through their Champions League opener.

A home game against La Liga’s Girona had looked to be relatively easy start, but it proved to be the opposite. Going into the 90th minute, PSG had 25 shots but had not broken through their opponents’ resolute defence.

Then, a huge slice of luck gave the French champions an opening win. Girona goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga undid his team’s hard work by letting a tame Nuno Mendes cross squirm through his hands and into the net.

In the end, a good start for the Parisians.

Let’s catch up on how Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain began this Champions League campaign a fortnight ago, starting with the Premier League side.

A trip to Bergamo beckoned for Mikel Arteta and co, as Arsenal kicked off against Atalanta — Artetaa’s side started well, causing problems for the Italians in the first quarter of an hour or so.

That strong start soon dissipated though, as Atalanta grew into the match.

The hosts then had the perfect opportunity to take the lead when Thomas Partey committed a foul in the 18-yard box. Fortunately for him, David Raya spared his blushes with a superb double save from the resulting penalty, taken by Mateo Retegui.

And 0-0 was how it finished.

Hello and welcome again to our live coverage of matchday two from this season’s Champions League — and specifically, Arsenal’s visit from Paris Saint-Germain.

It’s early days of course but both sides avoided defeat in their opening Champions League fixture, both sides are unbeaten after six games in their domestic top flight, and both will be looking to take a significant step towards a top-eight finish in this league stage by earning a victory tonight.

Don’t worry if you’re yet to get up to speed on what the changes to the Champions League format mean. You can read up on that below and we’ll cover it again as we build-up to the action in north London.

We’ll also keep you on top of the other games tonight, with eight more taking place across the continent and another nine tomorrow. So in short, don’t go anywhere. We’ve got you covered from here.

There a few teams in this season’s Champions League that can claim to be a bigger club than either Arsenal or PSG.

But there are plenty that have lifted this trophy, something that Arsenal and PSG have never done.

For the French side in particular, their lack of a European crown is something that follows them around every year. The pressure has dissipated somewhat after the departures of superstars like Lionel Messi, Neymar, and Kylian Mbappe, but the fans still expect major honours.

Is this PSG team capable of going all the way in the Champions League?

No groups to have a look at after the first round of fixtures. Instead, we look at the table of all 36 teams competing in this season’s Champions League.

A 9-2 victory against Dinamo Zagreb means Bayern Munich are the early pace-setters and they are joined by fellow German sides Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Dortmund in the automatic progression places.

Celtic and Aston Villa fans will be rather excited to see their sides in the top four places, but there is still plenty of football to be played.

PSG and Arsenal, meanwhile, are separated by two points and just one place in the table.

As you would expect with more teams and more matches, there is a bigger prize pot on offer. It has increased from €2.03 billion ($2.19bn/£1.74bn) last season to €2.437 billion ($2.71bn/£2.06bn) this season.

It is split into three sections. The first of those is ‘equal shares’ (27.5 per cent of the pot) which brings in €18.62m ($20.64m) for each of the 36 teams competing in the league phase.

The second section is the value pillar (35 per cent of the pot) and that is the money distributed based on each club’s coefficient and the broadcast market pay out.

And the final section is the performance-based prize money (37.5 per cent of the pot) which, as I’m sure you can imagine, is distributed based on each club’s performance in this season’s Champions League.

Each league-phase win is worth €2.1m ($2.3m) while reaching the latter stage of the tournament is very lucrative — the winning club receives €25m ($27.8m) on top of the payments for individual wins.

This is perhaps the most important change of them all, and the biggest move away from the old system.

Instead of eight six-team groups, there is one big league phase made up of all 36 teams competing in the Champions League.

Each team plays eight different opponents, four home and four away, and points are awarded as usual; three for a win, one for a draw and none for a defeat.

There will be a total of 18 matches played during each week of the league phase.

Both of these teams are among the favourites to make it all the way to this season’s Champions League final.

This year, that game returns to one of the world’s most iconic stadiums. The Allianz Arena, the home of Bayern Munich, has been picked for the final on May 31, 2025.

It is the second time UEFA has chosen to host its most iconic fixture at the Allianz Arena. In 2012, Chelsea defied the odds to beat Bayern Munich on penalties in their own backyard to lift the famous trophy for the first time.

It is the fifth time in all that Munich has been the host city for the Champions League final, with three being played at the Olympic Stadium (1979, 1993 & 1997).

The group stage dates to keep clear in your diary. And yes, the ‘group stage’ of the Champions League now runs until the end of January.

• Matchday 1: 17–19 September 2024
• Matchday 2: 1-2 October 2024
• Matchday 3: 22-23 October 2024
• Matchday 4: 5-6 November 2024
• Matchday 5: 26-27 November 2024
• Matchday 6: 10-11 December 2024
• Matchday 7: 21-22 January 2025
• Matchday 8: 29 January 2025

Without wanting to wish away today’s exciting day of Champions League football, there is plenty more on the way tomorrow.

The line-up looks like this:

Tomorrow at 5:45pm BST / 12:45pm EDT

• Girona vs Feyenoord
• Shakhtar Donetsk vs Atalanta

Tomorrow at 8pm BST / 3pm EDT

• Aston Villa vs Bayern Munich
• Benfica vs Atletico Madrid
• Dinamo Zagreb vs Monaco
• Lille vs Real Madrid
• Liverpool vs Bologna
• RB Leipzig vs Juventus
• Sturm Graz vs Club Bruges

Emirates Stadium, London

One of the great European stadia is where we are pitched up for this one.

The Emirates Stadium had long been a bit of a curse for Arsenal after moving from Highbury in 2006, but it is starting to become a fortress for Mikel Arteta’s side.

Unsurprisingly, it is sold out tonight — and could have probably sold out again — so there will be a terrific atmosphere for when the players make their way onto the pitch in a few hours’ time.

I can’t promise those blue skies, though!

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