Paris St-Germain are becoming one of the Europe's powerhouses.

They may have only won one French title - that came in 2020-21 when they pipped Lyon to the title by a single point - but they have made it to the semi-finals of the Women's Champions League in the past three seasons now.

The next step is getting to the final and challenging for the title, and this summer has seen them appoint Gerard Precheur as manager.

The 62-year-old previously managed Lyon between 2014 and 2017, winning three league titles and two Women's Champions League.

He's been there and done it. Can he do it again?

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Despite the prospect of a tough group, which sees Chelsea also face Albanian side Vllaznia and Real Madrid they are relishing the opportunity to test themselves.

"We respect PSG, they are one of the top teams in France," added Green. "We are looking forward to the challenge.

"You have to play the top teams at some time in the competition and we really think it will stand us in good stead to build confidence for when we go to Albania and Madrid."

The Blues have happy memories of playing PSG after an injury-time goal from Maren Mjelde sent Chelsea through to the semi-finals in 2019.

"We have happy memories from 2019 and we are looking to draw on that experience," said Green.

"We are up against another top team in Europe, but we are champions in England and want to give a good account."

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There has already been two games in the Women's Champions League tonight.

The first was in Chelsea's group, with Real Madrid, who have already knocked Manchester City out of this year's competition, winning 2-0 at Albanian side Vllaznia.

Wolfsburg, who won the competition in 2013 and 2014, have also beaten St Polten 4-0 in their group. There was a goal for ex-Arsenal midfielder Jill Roord in that game.

Roma also host Slavia Prague in that group tonight, with that game going on at the same time as Chelsea.

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Izzy Christiansen
Everton and England midfielder speaking to BBC Sport

Both Chelsea and Arsenal have fantastic squads but both have ridiculously hard groups.

Emma Hayes signed Kadeisha Buchanan this year, who has won the Champions League multiple times with Lyon - she will hope that she can give something extra defensively in the Champions League.

Hayes has established a winning-machine at Chelsea domestically and maybe them losing out last season was not a bad thing in terms of moving on.

It was heart-breaking to see that loss against Barcelona in the final for Chelsea, but maybe that and then going out at the group stage last year will help them to kick on.

Chelsea have been making improvements year-on-year in the Women's Champions League, culminating in the final defeat to Barcelona two seasons ago.

However, last year saw them exit at the group stages, after two draws and a defeat in their six games left them third in the group.

They will undoubtedly want to improve on that this season, but face the prospect of doing so, for the the majority of the group stages at least, without boss Emma Hayes, as she recovers from surgery.

They are being led by her assistant Denise Reddy, while general manager Paul Green is in charge of media duties.

Green spoke to the press in Paris yesterday about this year's competition.

"We are in another tough group, we embrace that and we know we have to be at our best to progress," he said.

"We didn't do that last year. We have to do the basics well and get the points necessary, which we didn't do last year."

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Netherlands international Lieke Martens, who was a Ballon d'Or nominee in 2018 and 2019, is absent from today's PSG's squad with illness.

But her compatriot Jackie Groenen, the former Manchester United midfielder, is in the starting line-up.

Ramona Bachmann leads the line for the Parisians against her former club.

PSG XI: Bouhaddi; Lawrence, De Almeida, Ilestedt, Karchaoui; Jean-Francois; Groenen, Geyoro, Fazer; Diani, Bachmann.

Subs: Picaud, Toussaint, Hamraoui, Cascarino, Baltimore, Georgieva, Li, Yang, Ngueleu, Traore.

Chelsea are without Fran Kirby tonight with the Lionesses forward ruled out through injury.

Maren Mjelde, who scored an last-minute winner against PSG to send the Blues through to the 2019 semi-finals, starts tonight. Could we be due similar heroics tonight?

Chelsea XI: Berger; Mjelde, Bright, Buchanan, Eriksson; Cuthbert, Ingle; Charles, Harder, Reiten; Kerr.

Subs: Musovic, Orman, Nouwen, Carter, England, James, Svitkova, Perriset, Fleming, Rytting Kaneryd, Abullina.

With kick-off now just 25 minutes away let's get straight to the team news.

Chelsea are without a key figure in midfield tonight...

Evening! How are you all?

Arsenal laid down one hell of a marker on Wednesday night, thrashing the current Women's Champions League holders Lyon in their own backyard.

Attention turns to Chelsea, who finished runners-up in 2021, tonight as they travel to Paris.

A victory would make the rest of Europe stand up and pay attention once again.

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Wednesday, 19 October

Lyon 1-5 Arsenal

Thursday, 20 October

Paris St-Germain v Chelsea

Can the Blues make it a very successful week for Women's Super League sides in France in the opening round of the Women's Champions League?

Let's find out.

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