Champions League: Leipzig still no match for Man City, PSG’s petrodollars

Derided by opposition fans for trampling over German football traditions, RB Leipzig find themselves in the unusual position of not being cast as the bad guys as the Champions League’s group of death kicks off on Wednesday.

Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain will cross swords again in Group A with both projects backed by oil-rich Middle Eastern states still chasing the holy grail of a first European Cup.

Amid the fallout of falling revenue due to the coronavirus pandemic shutting stadiums for over a year and the failure of the European Super League project, Abu Dhabi-owned City and Qatar-backed PSG have been the big winners.

Uninhibited by the loss of gate receipts and encouraged by the easing of Financial Fair Play regulations, they are the new power couple of European football, much to the anger of many of the continent’s traditional powers.

PSG have reunited Lionel Messi with Neymar and shunned Real Madrid’s reported bid for Kylian Mbappe despite the France World Cup winner having less than a year to run on his contract.

Euro 2020 player of the tournament Gianluigi Donnarumma, Georginio Wijnaldum and right-back Achraf Hakimi also arrived at the Parc des Princes during the transfer window.

City made just one new addition, but broke the £100 million barrier for the first time in the Premier League to get Jack Grealish from Aston Villa.

Leipzig beat PSG in the group stages last season on their way to reaching the last 16 at Manchester United’s expense.

However, expectations at shocking one of the two favourites for the competition this time are limited ahead of their trip to Manchester on Wednesday.

Under new coach Jesse Marsch, last season’s Bundesliga runners up have lost three of their first four league games and were thrashed 4-1 by Bayern at the weekend.

PSG will expect to make a winning start when they visit Club Brugge in the Group A’s other clash on Wednesday.

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