UEFA Champions League: Club Brugge vs. PSG Preview, Odds, Prediction

Club Brugge hosts Lionel Messi and the PSG in their first joint UCL league challenge. The Belgian champions have made a solid intro before this event, winning 3-0 against Oostende on Friday night. Meanwhile, PSG also had a nice match this weekend, beating 4-0 Clermont at home, without several of their best player involved, among else, Messi and Neymar. Kylian Mbappe was on the pitch, which was enough for the Parisians to demolish the solid team from the center of the French state.

Preview

Club Brugge (+1200) had an awfully painful experience before the international break, suffering a 6-1 defeat in Gent. It was arguably one of the worst defeats of the Blue-Blacks in the last couple of years. However, they responded very well, routinely beating Oostende on Friday, 2-0, with two goals scored by young Noah Lang, the striker who recently arrived from Ajax.

Lang is one of few youngsters signed by Brugge this summer, and it is expected from him to break Wesley’s record transfer fee from two years ago, when the club earned around $30 million.

Brugge plays open and offensive football, and eight of their last 10 matches were with three or more goals. In recent times they are frequently conceding, and only one of their four home events didn’t see both teams netting.

PSG (-480) is coming to Belgium, fired up with the recent development. Messi debuted, Mbappe stayed, the team plays well, so pretty much everything goes in their favor.

Messi and Neymar skipped this Saturday’s game against Clermont, meaning that they should start against Club Brugge. It is imperative for the Saints to begin their UCL campaign strong, because goal difference might be the difference-maker between them and Manchester City in the aftermath.

Since losing to Lilles in the French Super Cup, PSG went on to win five games in Ligue 1, in all of them scoring twice or more. Just one didn’t see three or more hits, and PSG’s goal difference during this stretch was 16-5.

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Ede Balanta went out against Oostende because of an injury and his participation on Wednesday is under a question mark.

On the other side, Sergio Ramos is still out, and along with him, Juan Bernat, and Leandro Paredes won’t be eligible for the event.

Head to Head Games

Club Brugge and PSG met twice in the UCL group stage back in the 2020/21 season. The match in Brugge ended 0-5 for the hosts. Mbappe scored a hat-trick while Mauro Icardi netted a brace.

The rematch in Paris saw only one hit, 1-0 for the hosts, as Icardi hit the back of the rival’s net. Brugge had missed a penalty in that one, and was close to level the result.

Prediction

PSG will come out firing on all cylinders, and we expect them to score at least three goals here. The guests to win with a -1.5 handicap is very realistic, with the odds of that -166, which is our primary choice for this event. Apart from that, you should try Over 1.5 HT, with the odds on that pick +110.

Pick: PSG -1.5 at -166

Here are the previews for more UEFA Champions League games:

• Chelsea vs. Zenit
• Besiktas vs. Borussia Dortmund
• Barcelona vs. Bayern Munich
• Manchester City vs. RB Leipzig
• Inter Milan vs. Real Madrid
• Liverpool vs. Inter Milan