Paris Saint-Germain vs Wolfsburg Women's Champions League preview: Where to watch, predicted line-ups

Paris Saint-Germain and Wolfsburg meet in the UEFA Women's Champions League quarter-final first leg on Wednesday 22 March at Parc des Princes.

What do you need to know

Considering the ubiquity of both these clubs at this stage, it is surprising that this is only the second time they have collided in Europe after the 2014/15 semi-final where Paris came through after away wins in both legs. Paris missed out on quarter-final seeding after bookending their group campaign with defeats by Chelsea, a side Wolfsburg eliminated at that stage last season.

Those Chelsea losses have been the only Paris defeats in 2022/23, however, other than in the Trophée des Championnes against Lyon, despite the continued absence of Marie-Antoinette Katoto. Ramona Bachmann, their quarter-final hero against Bayern last term, will doubtless be keen to repeat the trick against one of her former clubs.

Wolfsburg suffered a rare loss at home to Hoffenheim earlier this month, their first league defeat in more than a year, but have generally looked excellent this season with competition top scorer Ewa Pajor and Alex Popp both in the goals. However, a knee injury suffered in the weekend win against Potsdam by Lena Oberdorf made her seemingly a big doubt.

Form guide

Paris
Last six games (most recent result first): WWWWWW
Last match: Paris 1-0 Thonon Évian Grand Genève, 18/03 (French Cup semi-final)
Where they stand: 2nd in Division 1 Féminine , French Cup final

Wolfsburg
Last six games: WWLWWW
Last match: Wolfsburg 5-0 Turbine Potsdam, 17/03
Where they stand: 1st in Frauen Bundesliga, German Cup semi-final

Squad changes

Paris
In: Korbin Albert, Amalie Vangsgaard, Barbora Votíková
Out: Estelle Cascarino, Magnaba Folquet, Alice Pinguet, Bénédicte Simon, Lydia Williams, Lina Yang

Wolfsburg
In: None
Out: None

Starting line-ups

Paris: Bouhaddi; Lawrence, Élisa de Almeida, Geyoro, Karchaoui; Hamraoui, Jean-François, Bachmann; Groenen, Diani, Baltimore

Wolfsburg: Frohms; Hendrich, Hegering, Janssen, Rauch; Oberdorf, Lattwein; Huth, Roord, Popp; Pajor

View from the camps

Gérard Prêcheur, Paris coach: "We love this stadium, it is perhaps the most beautiful pitch in the world. Therefore, it is easy to prepare mentally since we know that everyone wants to be there. Where you have to be sharp is on the tactical level. We have started to disclose it to the players and we still have [Tuesday's] training to be a little more precise.

"We need supporters, it's important for us. Tomorrow is an event in this magnificent stadium. I learned that we already have more than 15,000 coming. I would like to appeal to the fans: if we could get closer to 20,000 tomorrow evening for this great match, that would be fantastic."

Élisa de Almeida, Paris defender: "Paris is the club of my heart so playing at Parc des Princes was a dream for me when I was little. As they often say, the crowd is the 12th man. I think there are a lot of games in which the fans helped us, I remember in particular the [quarter-final second-leg] last season against Bayern. There was also the victory against Real Madrid in December. I hope there will be many of them tomorrow and I wanted to say thank you to them for all they do for us. "

Tommy Stroot, Wolfsburg coach: "It's an away game in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, that speaks for itself. If you're in Paris on top of that, you know that there's a lot of individual quality and a special way of playing football here. These are topics for which we have prepared.

[On Oberdorf's absence] "Of course, a lot of thoughts go in the direction of Alex Popp, because she has often filled this position very well. Svenja Huth also filled in the centre last season. Of course we can also push up Marina Hegering, who did that against Roma from time to time. We looked at what could be the best solution and it's good that the opponents just don't know what's going to happen. Our flexibility in certain areas is an advantage."

Where is the 2023 UEFA Women's Champions League final being played?

UEFA

Eindhoven's PSV Stadium will stage the 2023 UEFA Women's Champions League final at 16:00 CET on Saturday 3 June.

First opened in 1910, the 35,000-capacity PSV Stadium has a long history of hosting major matches, including the UEFA Cup finals of 1978 (second leg) and 2006, the second leg of the 1988 UEFA Super Cup and three games at UEFA EURO 2000.

On 6 April 2018, 30,238 fans at the home of PSV Eindhoven watched the Netherlands beat Northern Ireland on the way to the FIFA Women's World Cup, a record crowd for any UEFA-organised women's qualifier. On 1 June 2019, a then Dutch record women's football attendance of 30,640 saw the Netherlands face Australia in a friendly at the stadium.