Champions League
2025-02-11 - Brest vs Paris Saint-Germain
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football: UEFA Champions League Play Off Round First Leg
Tuesday 11th February 2025 - Kick Off 5:45pm
This game is live on TV
Brest
A club that has been as low as becoming an amateur one before the rise back into the professional ranks seriously overachieved last season by earning a spot in the Champions League Group Stage. There would not have been big expectations of Brest in their maiden European campaign, but they are perhaps unfortunate to not finish in the top sixteen in the Champions League table and at least earn a Seed for this Play Off Round as the Knock Outs begin.
Despite the additions to the match schedule, Brest have played well domestically as well as in the Champions League and they will feel they can push towards the top four in France and perhaps earn another shot in the premier UEFA competition. For now the focus is on the Play Off Round against a familiar opponent, and Brest are trying to reverse a run of 3 losses in 4 Champions League games, including a 0-3 defeat to Real Madrid in the last fixture hosted.
Brest have won 10 of their last 14 games in all competitions since the defeat to Barcelona, which was at the end of 3 consecutive defeats. The 4 exceptions have also been losses and Brest had won 5 in a row when hosting before the consecutive defeats to Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain.
The squad that was available in the 0-2 win at Nantes should be ready to compete for Brest again.
Paris Saint-Germain
The ambition of the club remains as high as ever, but there is no doubting that there has been a shift in the Paris Saint-Germain approach as to how they are going to win a first Champions League. Instead of the superstar names, who might not have been willing to put in the hard work on the pitch, the approach is now a talented team that is going to run as hard as needed to win football matches.
In recent years some have questioned the character of Paris Saint-Germain and this current squad had something to prove as they failed to win any of 4 Champions League games and flirted with an embarrassing, early elimination. Fighting back from 0-2 down to beat Manchester City at the Parc des Princes was part of a 3 game winning run in the competition to move Paris Saint-Germain into the top sixteen in the final Group standings and they look a potentially dangerous dark horse to win the competition from here.
Paris Saint-Germain are unbeaten in 16 games in all competitions since losing in Bavaria to Bayern Munich, while they have picked up serious momentum thanks to 9 wins in 10 games played, including in each of the last 4. The side have won 7 of 8 away games in all competitions in normal time and Paris Saint-Germain have been scoring a lot of goals in those wins.
Ibrahim Mbaye and Warren Zaire-Emery are both doubts for this First Leg.
Head to Head
These two clubs are very familiar with one another and Paris Saint-Germain scored late goals to put a gloss on a 2-5 win over Brest away from home earlier this month.
Paris Saint-Germain have won 16 of the last 17 games against Brest in all competitions.
Prediction
There were two Champions League Group Stage Match Days to be played last month and at that time there was a real concern that Paris Saint-Germain could be eliminated before the Knock Out Rounds.
At the same time, Brest would have perhaps been thinking about a surprising top eight finish and a direct path into the Last 16, but the two French clubs had differing results in the January fixtures and that has paired them together in the Play Off Round.
Brest have arguably overachieved to even make it through the Champions League Group, especially as they are not able to host fixtures in their own Stadium.
This only makes it tougher for them to snap a long run of poor results against Paris Saint-Germain, while the latter won at Brest's real home earlier this month.
The French Champions dominated on that day in terms of the quality of chances created, even if late goals made the margin look more comfortable than it perhaps was for Paris Saint-Germain.
Brest will look to push again, but the attacking talents in the away squad are all in good form right now and the feeling is that they will return home for the Second Leg next week with a strong lead already on the board.
The Statistics :
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The Pick :
Brest 2-4 Paris Saint-Germain
FIXED ODDS BETTING TIP :
I'll back Paris Saint-Germain - 1.25 Asian Handicap at 1.75 with Bet365
