Strasbourg vs. PSG Lineups: Confirmed Team News & Starting XI

Before diving into the exciting PSG vs. Barcelona next Tuesday, attention turns to Strasbourg vs. PSG on Saturday.

The match should let the Parisian club keep climbing the Ligue 1 table, with ambitions of stringing together a fourth consecutive league win. But this trip to Alsace comes just three days after the energy-draining Manchester City vs. PSG (2-4) and therefore three days before the clash with Barça.

Luis Enrique will inevitably rotate his team and rest some key players this Saturday. We could thus well have a team fairly close to the one that started against Le Mans last Saturday. In goal, however, we do not expect to see Lucas Chevalier return to the equation, and we are banking on another start for Matvey Safonov.

In front of him, Achraf Hakimi could go again on the right unless Warren Zaïre-Emery, who finished exhausted Wednesday night, is not injured and can play this Saturday again. The Marquinhos/Pacho center-back pairing could well rest, allowing Ilya Zabarnyi and Lucas Hernandez to start, as last Saturday.

But we expect Pacho to start again in Alsace. At left-back, Nuno Mendes played 90 minutes on Wednesday and should give way to Lucas Digne, who had a very good match against Le Mans.

In midfield, João Neves should return to the starting XI after starting on the bench against Manchester City. Lucas Beraldo should replace Vitinha in the holding midfield role, while Dro Fernandez could complete the midfield.

In that scenario, it remains to be seen who would play left central midfield and who would play right. Against Le Mans, Dro played right, and Neves played left, which didn't work very well.

Finally, there is the Parisian attack. Luis Enrique has choices, and since Désiré Doué, Ousmane Dembélé, and Maghnes Akliouche scored against City before being substituted, they too could be preserved at kickoff against Strasbourg, which would allow Khvicha Kvaratskhelia to return to the starting XI.

Ferran Torres should also start this Saturday, as should Mika Godts. If this scenario is confirmed, it will be interesting to see which side the Dutchman plays on, given that he prefers to play on the left, like Kvara.

PSG's predicted starting XI vs. Strasbourg: Safonov; Hakimi (c), Zabarnyi, Pacho (or Hernandez), Digne; Neves, Beraldo, Dro; Kvaratskhelia, Torres, Godts.

For Strasbourg, coming off a draw and two Ligue 1 defeats, Hugo Oliveira will still be without his center-back and captain, Ismaël Doukouré, and his Swedish winger, Sebastian Nanasi. His Argentine striker, Joaquin Panichelli, is also unavailable.

The Racing side should line up on Saturday in a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1, with U.S. international Giovanni Reyna as the playmaker. Up front, Conrad Harder will compete with Jacobo Ortega, while midfield is in doubt between Samir El Mourabet and Dário Essugo, who scored against Nice last weekend.

Finally, at center back, we should see Karim Coulibaly, a former Werder Bremen player who was once reported to be on PSG's radar before signing last summer in Alsace for 20 million euros.

Strasbourg's predicted starting XI vs. PSG: Jorgensen (c); Antwi, Mitchell, Coulibaly, Oso; Diop, Essugo (or El Mourabet); Amo-Ameyaw, Reyna, Yassine; Ortega (or Harder).