With their win over Stuttgart, PSG finished the new Champions League league phase 15th. This means that if they can survive the playoff phase against either Monaco or Brest, they will have to face one of the top two teams in the table.
If PSG does advance over one of their French counterparts, they will have to take on either Barcelona or Liverpool.
Both of these teams are very strong, hence why they finished with 19 and 21 points out of 24 respectively.
Here, I will break down which of these two elite sides plays more into PSG’s favor.
FC Barcelona

While PSG’s 4-1 thrashing of Barcelona to move on to the UEFA Champions League semi-finals last year was very impressive, this is not the same team that they played nine months ago.
Hansi Flick replaced Xavi as manager, and his aggressive style of football has had the Catalan club flying. His aggressive style of football led to them scoring 28 goals across their eight league phase matches, most of any club by six.
However, PSG could provide them with major issues.
With Marc Andre Ter Stegen out for the season, Barcelona has had to rely on a combination of Iniaki Pena and Wojciech Szczesny in goal.
Neither of these two keepers are particularly good. Despite having a relatively easy schedule, they ranked 23rd in goals conceded, with one of their worst efforts being conceding four against Benfica.
If you combine Pena and Szczesny, they had a total of -2.49 xG prevented, which would be among the worst of all teams in the league phase.
They play a very aggressive style of football, pressing up very high and trying to get chances out in transition. If PSG matches up with them, it will be crucial for them to limit those opportunities.
They should be well equipped to deal with a high line, however. Vitinha is one of the best tempo-controllers in the world in midfield, and the pace of Bradley Barcola and Ousmane Dembele could cause Barcelona major issues if PSG is able to cope with their aggressive pressure.
Liverpool

The current favorite according to the odds to lift the trophy, Arne Slot has done wonders in his first season at Anfield.
The big area PSG could try to take advantage of against them is the fullbacks. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Barcola, and Dembele can all flip a game on its head at any moment, and Liverpool’s fullbacks are not great defensively.
Liverpool will be forced to focus on one of them, which will likely be Ousmane Dembele down the right. This will leave Kvaratskhelia or Barcola space down the left, which would be a major area for PSG to exploit them.
For Liverpool, their advantages could come by taking advantage of PSG’s weakness against quick attacks. Since the Parisians hold the ball so much, they are not too focused on preventing counters when they have the ball since they know the times they give it away are rare.
While the addition of one of the best ball winners in the world Joao Neves has certainly helped them in this regard, they can still find themselves vulnerable to a direct, quick attack by Liverpool.
If these two teams were to match up, the chess match between the managers with the height of the fullbacks would be very interesting.
Both teams have fullbacks who are more offensive-focused, and if caught out at the wrong moment, having a break led by Trent Alexander-Arnold or Achraf Hakimi could be a disaster for either side.