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PARIS: There is the sense that the new season gets up and running for real this week for Paris Saint-Germain as they begin their defense of the Champions League title amid doubts as to how much longer their squad can handle being pushed to the limit by a crowded calendar.
PSG host Atalanta on Wednesday for their first game in Europe, three and a half months after their stunning 5-0 destruction of Inter Milan in last season’s final in Munich.
Luis Enrique’s team will also entertain Bayern, Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United in the league phase, with trips to Barcelona, Bayer Leverkusen, Athletic Bilbao and to Lisbon to face Sporting on the horizon too.
Those are tough games, although PSG’s poor start in last season’s Champions League has shown that they might not need to be at their very best immediately.
The French champions lost three of eight league phase games last season, but still won Europe’s elite club competition for the first time following a dazzling run of form from the turn of the year.
The concern now, however, is that last season’s exertions could catch up with them and seriously jeopardize their chances of retaining the trophy.
The Parisians played 65 games during 2024/25, in a season spanning 11 months. That included 17 matches in the Champions League and seven in the Club World Cup, where their marathon campaign concluded with a 3-0 loss to Chelsea in mid-July.
Three weeks later they were back for pre-season training, and a week after that they started the new campaign against Tottenham in the UEFA Super Cup.
Fast forward a month and PSG — who won the Super Cup on penalties — have won their first four games in Ligue 1 but it looks like the recent efforts are beginning to catch up with them.
Ballon d’Or favorite Ousmane Dembele and Desire Doue are out for several weeks with muscle injuries suffered playing for France, while Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Lee Kang-in and Lucas Beraldo came off hurt in Sunday’s 2-0 victory over Lens.
“It happens to everyone. It is a bit of a difficult time for us because we have a lot of players injured,” said Luis Enrique, the coach with his own arm in a sling after fracturing a collarbone in a cycling accident.
“I am calm about it and I hope we will manage to overcome it.”
It is not solely luck that PSG avoided serious injuries last season, owing much to the coach’s management of the squad.

- Hakimi in the red zone? -

Nineteen PSG players played more than 1,000 minutes in 2024/25, the same number as Real Madrid and Barcelona for example.
But the Club World Cup, often played in searing heat and involving numerous long journeys across the United States, had to take a toll.
PSG used 19 players in that competition, while Chelsea fielded 27 — the French side looked rinsed in the final and were torn apart.
If they do go to the latter stages of the Champions League again, PSG are looking at playing at least 55 games this season, including the FIFA Intercontinental Cup in December.
And there is a World Cup coming at the end of the season, where a large bulk of PSG’s players will be present.
The year is set to be even more intense for Achraf Hakimi, who played more minutes than anyone else for PSG last season — he will also feature heavily for Morocco as they host the Africa Cup of Nations in December and January.
Hakimi has no natural understudy at right-back at PSG, who surprisingly opted not to add significant depth to their squad in the transfer window, signing only one new center-back in Illia Zabarnyi, while Lucas Chevalier replaced Gianluigi Donnarumma in goal.
“Injuries to high-profile players are only one visible part of the workload crisis facing professional football and are not surprising,” said global players’ union FIFPro last week.
“The impact is not felt just by the players but increasingly also by clubs, national teams, fans and national competitions.”
Yet despite the concerns, there is huge excitement at PSG as they put their title on the line in Europe.
“It is a special moment. We know how difficult this competition is, but we are relaxed about it and we are hoping to put in a good performance in our first game,” said Luis Enrique.

MANCHESTER, United Kingdom: Erling Haaland struck twice as Manchester City inflicted another damaging defeat on Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim with a comprehensive 3-0 win on Sunday.
Phil Foden opened the scoring before Haaland took center stage with a second-half double, either side of an incredible miss from the Norwegian, as City bounced back from two consecutive Premier League defeats.
United went into a derby ahead of City in the Premier League table for the first time in five years.
But that owed more to City’s early season struggles than signs of progress for Amorim’s men, who have taken just four points from their opening four games and been dumped out of the League Cup by fourth-tier Grimsby.
“In these kind of games we need to be perfect and in this game we were not perfect,” said Amorim.
“The frustration is always the same because with the amount of chances (we create), we need to score goals.”
To cap a fine City display, goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma marked his debut with a stunning save from Bryan Mbeumo to deny United a foothold in the game at 2-0.
City remain six points adrift of leaders Liverpool, but victory is a huge confidence boost for Pep Guardiola’s side ahead of facing Serie A champions Napoli and Premier League title rivals Arsenal next week.
“We needed this,” said Haaland. “You always want to win the derby but you could feel it extra today.
“I’m so relieved, so happy we managed to do it altogether. We have to keep going.”
Before kick-off, both sets of fans put rivalry aside to pay tribute to boxing legend Ricky Hatton, who died on Sunday at the age of 46.
A massive City fan, Hatton’s face was displayed on big screens during a minute’s applause.
Foden, a fellow boyhood City supporter, said before kick-off that the news gave the home side extra motivation to win in Hatton’s honor.
And the England international was central to a much-needed victory after a difficult start to the campaign for him personally and City as a whole.
Foden was the Premier League player of the season in the 2023/24 campaign, but his form dipped drastically last season.
Fitness issues meant he had not started a game this season until Sunday, but he took just 18 minutes to make his mark.
United’s defense allowed Jeremy Doku to bundle his way to the by-line and the Belgian’s cross picked out Foden, completely unmarked, to head in the opening goal.

Donnarumma decisive

Doku was the creator once more when City doubled their lead on 53 minutes.
Haaland showed his power, pace and incredible precision to dink the ball over the onrushing Altay Bayindir.
City’s number nine went from the sublime to the ridiculous moments later when he missed an open goal with the chance to double his tally.
United were architects of their own danger as Matthijs de Ligt’s poor pass set up a City counter-attack.
Tijjani Reijnders’s dummy set Haaland clear on goal, but after rounding Bayindir, he could only hit the post on the stretch.
Moments later, Donnarumma produced his moment of magic to prevent what could have been a turning point.
Mbeumo’s sweetly-struck volley was arrowing into the bottom corner until the Italian reached out a giant right hand to turn it behind.
What could have been 2-1 was soon 3-0 thanks to another United gift.
Harry Maguire this time gave away possession to Bernardo Silva, who set Haaland racing away into the vacant United half and he kept his cool to score for the eighth time in nine appearances against United.
City fans goaded Amorim with chants of “sacked in the morning” in the closing stages.
The Portuguese is not in danger of an immediate dismissal, but his Premier League record now reads a dismal eight wins in 31 games.