Geneva, Oct. 13: The soccer schedule gods had a sense of humor making Manchester City's return to the Champions League after a devastating verdict of financial rule-breaking a game against Paris Saint-Germain.
Man City hosts title holder PSG on Wednesday in a standout meeting of Middle East state-backed clubs who were on parallel narratives for much of the past 15 years that now have wildly diverged.
Barcelona is still Europe's best team this season five weeks after the opening round of Champions League games and takes a run of nine straight wins to Galatasaray on Tuesday.
Arsenal hosts Lille on Tuesday looking for a 14th straight win in the league phase across all three seasons of the current format.
Bayern Munich also plays Tuesday, at Norwegian champion Viking, and Real Madrid has a Wednesday visit to one of coach José Mourinho's former clubs Roma.
Tale of two cities
Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain had much in common before combining to win three of the past four Champions League titles. They had won none in the previous 67 seasons of the marquee competition.
They were underachieving big city clubs transformed by soccer's new wave of petrostate wealth: Man City in 2008 backed by Abu Dhabi's royal family and a Qatari takeover of PSG in 2011.
Ambitious investment with sponsors from home created issues complying with UEFA's new Financial Fair Play rules and both were fined 20 million euros ($22.4 million) in 2014.
Each lost their first Champions League final — PSG to Bayern in 2020 and Man City the next year to Chelsea — then broke through in title games against Inter Milan led by coaches who previously won it with Barcelona. Man City won in 2023 and PSG in 2025.
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