Chelsea vs Paris Saint-Germain match facts

With both teams' qualification for the UEFA Women's Champions League quarter-finals secured on Matchday 5, Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain go head to head at Stamford Bridge looking to advance as Group A winners, with the English champions holding a significant advantage.

Chelsea, with 13 points from their five matches, are three ahead of Paris and will top the group with any result other than a defeat by two goals or more. The visitors need a win by that margin having lost 1-0 at home to Chelsea and having a inferior overall goal difference should they triumph by a single goal.

The Londoners became the first side to inflict a group stage defeat on Paris with a 1-0 win in the French capital on Matchday 1. Millie Bright's emphatic 27th-minute volley was also the first goal scored against Les Parisiennes in their first seven UEFA Women's Champions League group fixtures.

Chelsea, as English champions for the third straight season, received a bye through to the group stage. After kicking off their seventh successive UEFA Women's Champions League campaign with that momentous win in Paris, they recorded their biggest European victory, 8-0 at home to Vllaznia, before overcoming Real Madrid 2-0, also in London. They dropped their first points and conceded their first goal in the return fixture, a 1-1 draw in the Spanish capital, before clinching qualification with a 4-0 win in Albania in which Sofie Ingle, Fran Kirby, Kateřina Svitková and Maren Mjelde (penalty) all found the target.

Chelsea were dramatic group stage fallers last season, edged out on the final day in a three-way tiebreak with Wolfsburg and Juventus, having reached their first final in the previous campaign, which they lost 4-0 to Barcelona in Gothenburg. It was also a 4-0 defeat that undid them on 16 December 2021 in Wolfsburg, on a night when the Blues needed to avoid a loss by two goals or more.

Beaten semi-finalists in each of the last three seasons, Paris were the top scoring-team in last term's inaugural group stage, hitting 25 goals and conceding none in their six Group B encounters. However, they failed to find the net in their first two Group A games in this campaign, that 1-0 defeat at home to Chelsea followed by a 0-0 draw at Madrid. They recovered to register two convincing wins against Vllaznia (5-0 h, 4-0 a) before sealing an eighth quarter-final place – and fifth in successive seasons – with a 2-1 victory against Madrid at the Parc des Princes, goals in each half from Élisa de Almeida and Kadidiatou Diani (penalty) securing the three vital points.

Gérard Prêcheur, who took over as Paris head coach in August, guided his side into this group stage at the expense of Swedish outfit BK Häcken, courtesy of a 4-1 aggregate success in round 2 of qualifying (2-1 h, 2-0 a).

The teams previously met in the 2018/19 quarter-finals, when Chelsea squeezed through 3-2 on aggregate after both sides won their respective home legs. The Londoners won the first game 2-0, a lead that Paris wiped out in the return before Mjelde sent the visitors into the semi-finals with a tie-clinching winner in added time.

Chelsea were defeated by Paris's domestic rivals Lyon in that 2018/19 semi-final (1-2 a, 1-1 h), and their overall record against French opposition in the UEFA Women's Champions League is W4 D1 L2.

Paris's record against English clubs in European competition is W2 L2, their one other such fixture a 2-1 win against Arsenal in a 2019/20 quarter-final in neutral San Sebastián.

Players to watch

Fran Kirby

Kirby is Chelsea's all-time top scorer and fast closing in on 100 goals in all competitions for the London side.

The attacking midfielder is a five-time English champion with Chelsea, whom she joined from hometown club Reading in 2015.

Her peak season was in 2020/21, when she scored 28 goals in 34 games in all competitions to help the Blues win the domestic quadruple and reach the final of the UEFA Women's Champions League. She was also voted FA Women's Super League Player of the Season.

Kirby's goal against Vllaznia in Albania on Matchday 5 – from a quickly-taken free-kick – was her first in Europe this term but her 20th in all, in 39 appearances over six campaigns.

A seasoned England international, the 29-year-old has appeared in two FIFA Women's World Cups and two UEFA Women's EUROs, scoring twice in the 2022 triumph on home soil.

Sandy Baltimore

A Paris Saint-Germain youth product, Baltimore has been a first-teamer since October 2016 and a regular starter for the past three seasons.

The 22-year-old forward won the 2020/21 Division 1 Féminine title with Paris, scoring eight goals, providing 12 assists and earning a place in the league's official Team of the Season.

She has also won the domestic cup twice with the Parisian club, most recently last season, scoring the opening goal in the 3-0 win that eliminated arch-rivals Lyon in the round of 16.

Baltimore scored three European goals last season and made it five in total with her strike on Matchday 3 at home to Vllaznia.

A European champion with France at Under-19 level in 2019, scoring in the 2-1 final victory against Germany, she made her senior debut in December 2020 and helped her country to the semi-finals of UEFA Women's EURO 2022

Key facts

Chelsea have lost only one of their last 11 UEFA Women's Champions League games, winning seven.

The London club have kept seven clean sheets in their last nine European matches including all of their last four games at home.

Paris's Matchday 5 victory against Madrid was the fifth in their last ten European games (D2 L3).

The French side had scored in 15 successive UEFA Women's Champions League matches before drawing a blank against Chelsea on Matchday 1.

Paris have lost only one of their previous 11 UEFA Women's Champions League group games (W9 D1).