Stuttering PSG Face Moment Of Truth In Champions League

A stuttering and entirely unconvincing Champions League campaign for Paris Saint-Germain will come to a head if they lose to Manchester City on Wednesday, an outcome which would leave the French club teetering on the brink of an early exit. PSG were handed what seemed like the toughest draw of any team in this new-look Champions League, with Arsenal, Atletico Madrid and Bayern Munich among their opponents before this meeting with Pep Guardiola's City at the Parc des Princes.

But a club that is one of the richest and most influential in the world game under their Qatari owners have still made a mess of things so far, even accounting for the difficulties of adapting to life without the departed Kylian Mbappe.

Beaten semi-finalists last season, the Parisians deservedly lost away to Arsenal and Bayern and succumbed to a last-gasp defeat at home to Atletico.

They were held at home by PSV Eindhoven and only beat Girona courtesy of a late own-goal.

Luis Enrique's team have scored only six goals in six games thus far, with three of those coming in the away win at a poor Red Bull Salzburg side last month.

They come into the clash with City -- to whom they have lost four of their last five meetings -- sitting one point and one place outside the qualifying spots for next month's play-off round.

Failure to beat the English champions will see them going into their final match of the league phase, away to VfB Stuttgart on January 29, having to win to avoid going out.

To put that into some context, PSG have not gone out in the group stage in any of the last 12 seasons since returning to the Champions League in the wake of the transformative Qatar Sports Investments takeover of 2011.

Prior to that their last appearance had been in