The pressure is firmly on coach Christophe Galtier, given that these big European matches are what define every season for PSG in the Qatar era and their worrying habit of imploding on such occasions.
Galtier's brief is to do what all his predecessors -- most recently Mauricio Pochettino -- have failed to do and win the Champions League after PSG persuaded Mbappé to sign a new contract and stay in the French capital last year rather than join Real Madrid.
They had just gone out in the last 16 for the fourth time in six seasons, the nature of their collapse against Real as spectacular as previous exits at the same stage against Barcelona in 2017 and Manchester United in 2019.
In past years they have been hampered by injuries at inopportune moments, with metatarsal fractures striking down Neymar ahead of a tie against Real in 2018 and ruling him out of both legs of the United debacle a year later.