History favours PSG as Wolfsburg come calling

Paris Saint-Germain FC coach Paul Le Guen can take heart from a fine record against German teams when the capital club welcome VfL Wolfsburg to Parc des Princes for the first leg of their UEFA Cup Round of 32 tie.

• This will be the two sides' first meeting in European club competition.

• It will be PSG's eighth game against a German outfit. They have won four and lost three of their seven previous matches against opposition from Germany.

• PSG have won all three of their home games against Bundesliga clubs, with FC Bayern München the beaten opponents on each occasion.

• Le Guen played in four of PSG's six meetings against Bayern in European competition, emerging victorious three times. However, the former defender will have unhappy memories of his last game against the Bavarian outfit, which was a 5-1 away defeat at the group stage of the 1997/98 UEFA Champions League.

• PSG lost 3-1 at FC Schalke 04 in their opening Group A fixture in this season's UEFA Cup. It was their first competitive game against a Bundesliga side other than Bayern.

• It was also the first time Le Guen had tasted defeat against a German club since his coaching career began. During his tenure at the helm of Olympique Lyonnais, Les Gones claimed three wins and a draw from four games against German opposition.

• Le Guen has won all four of his home fixtures against Bundesliga clubs as a player and a coach.

• Wolfsburg have played eight European matches against French opposition, all of which came in the UEFA Intertoto Cup. Overall they have recorded one win, four draws and three defeats while their four competitive games on French soil have yielded two draws and two defeats.

• Since defeating CS Sedan-Ardennes in Germany on 22 July 2000, Wolfsburg have failed to win any of their last six games against Ligue 1 teams.

• Wolfsburg boss Felix Magath had a mixed record against French sides during his playing days. The midfielder helped the former West Germany beat France 2-0 in the semi-finals of the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico, but can look back on just one win and two defeats from three games against Ligue 1 clubs with Hamburger SV.

• As head coach of Hamburg, Werder Bremen and VfB Stuttgart, he has accrued a solitary win and four defeats from five games against French opposition. Magath's only success came in the most recent of these fixtures: Stuttgart's 2-0 victory over LOSC Lille Métropole in the final of the 2002 UEFA Intertoto Cup.

• Wolfsburg's injured Brazilian forward Grafite experienced top-flight French football with UC Le Mans 72 from 2005 to 2007 in what was his first spell with a European club.

• In his second season at Le Mans he played alongside Benin-born midfielder Stéphane Sessegnon, now at PSG. Le Mans finished that campaign in 12th place in Ligue 1, as well as reaching the semi-finals of the French League Cup. There they lost 1-0 to eventual beaten finalists Lyon.

• PSG are unbeaten in their last three UEFA Cup games since that loss to Schalke.

• The Parisian outfit have won four and drawn two of their six European home games since a shock 4-2 UEFA Cup group-stage reverse against Hapoel Tel-Aviv FC on 23 November 2006.

• Wolfsburg are unbeaten in six European games home and away since a 4-0 UEFA Intertoto Cup semi-final defeat by Ligue 1 side RC Lens on 3 August 2005. This run has featured four wins and two draws.

• The loss to Lens is the club's only reverse from their last six European away days. The other five fixtures produced three wins and two draws.

• French League Cup holders PSG qualified for the Round of 32 as third-placed finishers in Group A. Wolfsburg, fifth in the Bundesliga in 2007/08, topped Group E.

• PSG's Péguy Luyindula is within a booking of a one-match suspension, as are Wolfsburg's Josué, Makoto Hasebe and Marcel Schäfer.

• January squad changes:-
PSG
Players added to squad list: Chris Mavinga, Florian Makhedjiouf.
Players removed from squad list:Youssuf Mulumbu, Granddi N'Goyi, Younousse Sankhare, Yannick Boli.
Wolfsburg
Players added to squad list:Yoshito Okubo, Sebastian Schindzielorz, Kevin Wolze.
Players removed from squad list:Jonathan Santana, Alexander Madlung, Jacek Kryznówek.

• The victors will meet the winners of the SC Braga v R. Standard de Liège tie in the UEFA Cup Round of 16. They will play the first leg at home on 12 March, followed by the second leg on 18/19 March.