City at ease as PSG come calling

With Manchester City FC already certain of a place in the UEFA Cup Round of 32, the onus is on Group A strugglers Paris Saint-Germain FC to achieve a result at the City of Manchester Stadium on Matchday 4.

• A 2-0 win at FC Schalke 04 on 27 November made qualifying a mathematical certainty for City with two games to spare. PSG, however, have just one point after their first two matches and are rooted to the foot of Group A.

• This is City and PSG's first meeting in UEFA club competition.

• City have never come up against French opponents before.

• PSG have played six matches against English sides. In those meetings, their record reads W1 D2 L3. In three games in England they have picked up a draw and two defeats and are yet to score a goal on the other side of the Channel.

• City manager Mark Hughes has faced French opposition as a player and a coach. His Blackburn Rovers FC side beat AS Nancy-Lorraine 1-0 in the 2006/07 UEFA Cup group stage, while during his days as a Manchester United FC player, he featured in both legs of a 1990/91 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup quarter-final tie against Montpellier Hérault FC, drawing 1-1 at Old Trafford but winning 2-0 in France.

• Thus he has yet to taste defeat in three club competition games against French sides.

• PSG coach Paul Le Guen has been to Manchester before, with his Olympique Lyonnais team taking on United in the 2004/05 UEFA Champions League group stage, drawing 2-2 in France but losing 2-1 at Old Trafford.

• Le Guen also visited England as a player. His PSG side lost to Arsenal FC in the semi-finals of the 1993/94 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, drawing 1-1 at home and then going down 1-0 at Highbury. However, he was still at the club three years later when they made up for that defeat in the semi-finals of the same competition, beating Liverpool FC 3-0 at home and losing 2-0 away to reach the final, where they lost 1-0 to FC Barcelona.

• Le Guen has thus been in the losing party on all three of his previous visits to England.

• Zimbabwean striker Benjani Mwaruwari is the only City player with any experience of French football, having spent four seasons at AJ Auxerre between 2002 and 2006 prior to joining Portsmouth FC.

• Three PSG players have played in England in recent years. Claude Makelele was at Chelsea FC from 2004 until this summer, while Serbian striker Mateja Kežman spent the 2004/05 season at Stamford Bridge. Defender Zoumana Camara also sampled English football during a 2003/04 loan spell from RC Lens to Leeds United AFC.

• Ludovic Giuly, meanwhile, was on the winning side as FC Barcelona beat City's Premier League rivals Arsenal in the 2005/06 UEFA Champions League final.

• City have lost just two of their 25 European home games, drawing five and winning the other 18.

• Five of PSG's last ten European away games have ended in 0-0 draws.

• FC Twente play Schalke in Wednesday's other Group A game. Real Racing Club are the only side in the section not in action on Matchday 4.

• The draw for the UEFA Cup Round of 32 and Round of 16 will be held at UEFA Headquarters in Nyon on Friday 19 December at 13.00CET. Group winners will be paired with third-placed sides from other UEFA Cup sections, while second-placed finishers will be drawn against one of the eight clubs who finished third in the UEFA Champions League groups. The UEFA Cup group winners and runners-up will play the second leg at home. Teams from the same association cannot be drawn against each other.