Tomorrow night's match will be anything but a walk in the park for Les Parisiens. Having emerged victorious from all three of their home games in the UEFA Champions League this season, scoring nine goals and conceding just two in the process, Sporting will be looking to make it four wins out of four against the capital club. Although they currently sit 14th in the league-phase table, the reigning Portuguese champions are just two points away from the top eight and would draw level with Paris with a win on Tuesday.
Paris Saint-Germain will know the difficulty of the task at hand, then, but won't be any less ambitious as a result. So far, Luis Enrique's men have shone on the road, with memorable victories away to Barcelona (2-1) and Leverkusen (7-2) last October, before being held to a 0-0 draw by a solid Athletic Club side in Bilbao. So, Paris will have the chance not only to get back to winning ways but also to tighten their grip on third place tomorrow.
1 – Sporting Clube de Portugal and Paris Saint-Germain are set to face each other competitively for the first time ever.
3 – Although they have won each of their last three Champions League home games, the Lisboans have never picked up four consecutive wins on home soil in this competition.
11 – 11 different players have scored for Paris in the UCL this season (excluding own goals), which is the highest such total of any team in the competition.
Tomorrow night, Sporting manager Rui Borges will once again be able to count upon his first-choice keeper, Rui Silva, but not on the centre-back pairing of Ousmane Diomande and Eduardo Quaresma, who are both injured. However, another Portugal international, Gonçalo Inácio, will be available to command his side's back line and will probably be accompanied there by Belgium's Zeno Debast, while Matheus Reis could come in as a third centre-back in a five-man defence.
At left-back, Uruguay international Maxi Araújo has established himself as one of the first names on the Sporting team sheet, while Iván Fresneda is expected to start on the opposite side, having been preferred to summer signing Georgios Vagiannidis so far. In midfield, Borges will have to go without his captain, Morten Hjulmand, due to suspension; as a result of this hefty absence, all eyes will be on his replacement, 19-year-old João Simões. It remains to be seen whether Daniel Bragança, Giorgi Kochorashvili or Hidemasa Morita will come in to support the Portugal under-21 international, although the latter of the three appears to be the most likely.
Slightly higher up the pitch, the excellent Francisco Trincão, who has notched up nine goals and 12 assists across all competitions this season, will almost certainly be given the keys to drive his team forward in the absence of wingers Geovany Quenda and Pedro Gonçalves. Having got used to plying his trade on the right flank, the former Barcelona man is now blossoming in a playmaker role.
After joining the club from West Ham this winter, Brazilian talent Luis Guilherme will be another absentee for the visitors tomorrow night due to his ineligibility. As a consequence, Geny Catamo will probably start on the right side of Sporting's front line, with Alisson Santos on the opposite wing. If so, both players would be expected to support Colombian international Luis Suárez. Having already racked up 20 goals and six assists in 2025–2026, the centre-forward will be the main threat to the Paris defence, with Fotis Ioannidis still sidelined by injury.
