Key events
Yellow cards were wiped after the quarter-finals. So if anybody wants to miss the second leg, they’ll have to get the extra mile and get themselves sent off tonight.
Désiré Doué, 19, starts in attack for PSG tonight
Désiré had a great career ahead of him from a young age. He was a creative player. He liked to make the difference individually, but he was also driven by the collective.
Having completed Real Madrid, Declan Rice’s next challenge is to deal with João Neves, Fabián Ruiz and Vitinha.
Arteta’s plan was for Rice to be a No 6 and clean up at the base of midfield. He called him a lighthouse, describing him as a player with the ability to guide his teammates, but soon saw that his new signing was capable of shining in more advanced areas. “He plays very, very high in Arsenal,” Thomas Tuchel, England’s manager, said of Rice last month. “He plays sometimes as a defensive second striker. When they press high he’s sometimes a double striker. He plays in the left 10 pocket.”
PSG team news: Doue preferred to Barcola
No surprises in the Paris Saint-Germain team either. Desire Doue replaces Bradley Barcola in the only change from the second leg of their quarter-final against Aston Villa.
Paris Saint-Germain (4-3-3) Donnarumma; Hakimi, Marquinhos, Pacho, Nuno Mendes; Joao Neves, Vitinha, Fabian Ruiz; Doue, Dembele, Kvaratskhelia.
Substitutes: Safonov, Tenas, Kimpembe, Goncalo Ramos, Lee, L Hernandez, Mayulu, Barcola, Zaire-Emery, Lucas Beraldo, Mbaye.
Arsenal team news: Trossard starts
The Arsenal team is as expected, with just one enforced change from the win at the Bernabeu. Leandro Trossard replaces the suspended Thomas Partey, so Mikel Merino will move back into midfield.
Arsenal (4-3-3) Raya; Timber, Saliba, Kiwior, Lewis-Skelly; Odegaard, Rice, Merino; Saka, Trossard, Martinelli.
Substitutes: Neto, Setford, Tierney, White, Zinchenko, Sterling, Butler-Oyedeji, Henry-Francis, Kabia, Nwaneri.
Champions League: previews and predictions for the semi-finals
Luis Enrique has the luxury of selecting from a full squad. The PSG manager named a strong team for the 3-1 loss to Nice on Friday – PSG’s first Ligue 1 defeat this season. Enrique must decide which of his attackers to drop, with Désiré Doué and Bradley Barcola battling to join Ousmane Dembélé and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia on the frontline. Otherwise, the rest of the XI picks itself. His midfield trio of João Neves, Vitinha and Fabián Ruiz have been impressive this season and will look to dictate in the middle.
The head-to-head
Arsenal have never lost to Paris Saint-Germain, though it’s a small sample size. These are their previous meetings.
Cup Winners’ Cup semi-final, 1993-94
I think the chant “1-0 to the Arsenal” was born in the first leg of that game, when they were ahead at half-time. Either that or I’ve been dreaming about Arsenal and the Pet Shop Boys again.
Champions League group stage, 2016-17
Champions League league state, 2024-25
Preamble
Tonight, on a blissful spring evening in North London, 60,000 virgins will assemble in a a four-tiered bowl with polycarbonate roofing. We should probably explain that, eh.
Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain, who meet at the Emirates Stadium in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final, are arguably the biggest clubs never to become champions of Europe. That gives tonight’s game a unique excitement: it’s both a heavyweight clash and a meeting of wide-eyed dreamers.
The last time Arsenal played in a Champions League semi-final, in May 2009, even Myles Lewis-Skelly, aged 2, barely know who the eff Myles Lewis-Skelly was. This is PSG’s fourth semi-final in the last six years, by contrast, but their first without Eminem. That’s another feature of this game – the two teams are just that, with an emphasis on the collective and an absence of galacticos.
If you combined all the votes in last year’s Ballon d’Or for the 22 players involved tonight, they’d still only have finished 18th. This is going to change in the future, perhaps the very near future. But that’s the point: right now, at 6pm BST on 29 April 2025, the players and fans of Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain have it all ahead of them.
Kick off 8pm.
