This Thursday (August 28th) the league phase matchups were defined in the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 and Luis Enrique Martínez, coach of Paris Saint-Germain, will once again have to deal with a very tough schedule in the league phase.

In this sense, his players will have to face FC Barcelona. The 'Parisians' will have to travel to Barcelona to try to reaffirm the good footballing moment they are going through. Despite this, it will not be easy to take the 3 points against a Catalan team, which will also seek to strengthen its good dynamic.

Therefore, in the prelude to the league match against Toulouse, the Asturian coach did not hide the emotional burden of facing the club where he left a deep mark as a player and coach, expressing a very different wish to the president of Barça, Joan Laporta.

"For me it is a positive and negative feeling. It is nice to play in Barcelona again, because it is my home (...). But, at the same time, if I speak with my heart, it is the club that has helped me the most and it does not make me very happy to play against them", said Luis Enrique.

PSG's tough road in the Champions League 25/26 league phase

Paris Saint-Germain will not only have the difficult task of facing Barcelona, but will also face Bayern Munich, Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur and Athletic Club de Bilbao as the toughest rivals in their league phase matches. 

PSG's home matches:

Bayer Munich (Germany)

Atalanta Bergamo (Italy)

Tottenham Hotspur (England)

Newcastle United (England)

PSG's away matches:

FC Barcelona (Spain)

Bayer Leverkusen (Germany)

Sporting CP (Portugal)

Athletic Club (Spain)

Barça and PSG, facing the challenge of revalidating their dominance in Europe

Both the Blaugrana team, led by Hansi Flick, and PSG face a 2025/26 season, in which they will have to revalidate what they achieved in the 2024/25 season.

On the one hand, Barça managed to win the domestic treble (Liga, Copa del Rey and Spanish Super Cup), but that is not enough for the German coach, who at the end of last season stated that they would work to achieve more titles, pointing directly to the Champions League.

On the other hand, there are the 'Parisians', who under the orders of Luis Enrique conquered the Champions League for the first time in their history. And not only that, but they also won the league title, the French Cup and the Super Cup.

However, 'Lucho' does not see it so easy to repeat the feat achieved by his team last season. The coach believes that in this new season it will be more difficult to face certain matches in Europe, taking into account opponents such as Barça and Bayern.

"There are no easy matches in our calendar. We have two of the best teams from pot 1, two of the best from pot 3... Thinking about last season, it is difficult to win five matches and draw another to be in the top eight. We can do it. But it will be difficult, very difficult”, he added

It should be remembered that the Asturian coach when he led the Blaugrana team (between 2014 and 2017) won the Champions League, Copa del Rey and LaLiga in the 2014/15 season.

Laporta gets the Champions League match he was hoping for

However, although Luis Enrique is not so happy about the match against Barça, the one who is happy about the face-to-face between both teams is the president of the Catalan team, Joan Laporta.

During the Asian tour of the Blaugrana team, the Culé president expressed his desire to face PSG, since both his team and the French team are the ones who play football the best, according to him.

Likewise, at that time he added that he hoped that the new edition (the 25/26) would cross them, and now his wish has been fulfilled, in the best way, since he will face the match at home. Although it remains to be seen if it will finally be played at the Spotify Camp Nou or at the Montjuïc Olympic Stadium. Who do you think will win the match between Barcelona and PSG?