Paris Saint-Germain are on a 10-game winning streak heading into their Champions League clash with Liverpool, having beaten Lille 4-1 on Saturday.
Wednesday night pits the leaders of the Premier League and Ligue 1 against each other for the first leg of the Champions League last 16.
Liverpool and PSG are both overwhelming favourites to win their respective leagues and on Saturday the latter took a step closer to making it four titles in a row.
PSG did so at the expense of Lille, who are the most recent club to break their Ligue 1 monopoly having won the title themselves in 2020/21.
Luis Enrique made six changes from the side that thrashed fourth-tier Stade Briochin 7-0 in the French Cup quarter-finals in midweek, with only Achraf Hakimi, Lucas Beraldo, Joao Neves, Fabian Ruiz and Goncalo Ramos starting both.
Gianluigi Donnarumma, Marquinhos, Nuno Mendes, Desire Doue, Bradley Barcola and Ousmane Dembele all came back into the lineup.
PSG XI vs. Lille: Donnarumma; Hakimi (Zaire-Emery 62′), Marquinhos, Beraldo, Mendes (Pacho 62′); Ruiz, Doue (Lee 75′), Neves (Vitinha 63′); Dembele (Kvaratskhelia 63′), Barcola, Ramos
Subs not used: Safonov, Mayulu, Kimpembe, Hernandez
The majority of those players are likely to start against Liverpool on Wednesday night, and will do so in supreme form after a 4-1 victory at the Parc des Princes.
Barcola, Marquinhos, Dembele and Doue all found the back of the net in the first half, with Jonathan David’s late strike a mere consolation for Lille.
PSG’s comfortable lead allowed Enrique to make four changes on the hour mark, with Hakimi, Mendes, Dembele and Neves all brought off.
Those who came on did not weaken the side at all, however, with Warren Zaire-Emery, Willian Pacho, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Vitinha taking over.
The result extended PSG’s lead at the top of Ligue 1 to 16 points ahead of second-placed Marseille’s clash with Nantes on Sunday night, with only six more wins from their remaining 10 games required to guarantee the title.
PSG are now unbeaten in 22 games, with 10 wins in a row and only one draw in their last 20 – they are yet to taste defeat in Ligue 1 and are tied with Liverpool and Galatasaray with the second-longest unbeaten streak in a European league (24 games).
“We’re not going to change much, today was a test,” Enrique said after the game, per L’Equipe.
“Liverpool and Lille have similarities. We put them under such pressure that they could no longer play from the back, they had to play long.
“It will be different, it will be very complicated of course, but we are in the best period of the season.
“We will play against the best team in Europe, who qualified brilliantly, but it is not in our mentality to speculate, protect ourselves, stay defensive.
“We will attack and we will try to turn that in our favour.”
He added: “I know Liverpool very well, without a doubt they are the team in the best form in Europe both in terms of results and play.
“It could have been a Champions League final, we’re going to try to do it with our weapons.”
