Arsenal v PSG LIVE: Champions League latest score and goal updates from semi-final – UK Times

Bukayo Saka has scored nine goals and made six assists in 16 appearances in the Champions League for Arsenal.

This is already the most goal involvements for an English player in their first two seasons in the competition, and the most by a winger in their first two since Sadio Mane (16 across 2017-18 and 2018-19).

Ousmane Dembele has been directly involved in 10 goals in the Champions League this season (seven goals, three assists), and could equal the record for most goal involvements by a PSG player in a single edition.

Kylian Mbappe currently holds the record with 11 in 2020/21 (eight goals, three assists).

When he takes to the pitch tonight, Arsenal’s Myles Lewis-Skelly will be both the youngest Englishman and youngest Premier League player to appear in a Champions League semi-final (18y 215d).

London is a city that is so big it usually absorbs big-game atmospheres – but not tonight. King’s Cross was so busy three hours before kick-off there was crowd control. Everywhere you turn there are Arsenal shirts, and some PSG. You can really feel what an occasion this is.

“It’s going to be a big game, we’re really confident,” said Gabriel Martinelli in his pre-match press conference on Monday.

“We know the quality that we have. Of course it’s PSG, it’s an amazing team. The’ve got a really good side with great players, but we’re really confident, we trust ourselves to get the win.

“It’s a dream to be here. Since I started to play football when I was five or six I had this dream to play in the Champions League and to be in the semi-final. I love to be here and the club has given me so much, not just on the pitch but off it as well. I’m really happy.

“It’s an opportunity for our lives. It’s a great game and everyone that loves football would love to be playing these kinds of games. We’re going to enjoy the moment.”

“The club has never won this title and the club deserves to have it,” Gabriel Martinelli added.

“It’s one of the biggest clubs in the world and we’re really happy to be involved in the final four.

“We’re excited for the game and believe we can win it.”

PSG have progressed from seven of their 10 Champions League knockout ties when playing the first leg away from home, taking a lead into the second leg on six of the last nine occasions.

Can Arsenal keep them at bay tonight?

A rarity for Arsenal, in their first Champions League semi-final for 16 years, and for the Champions League as a whole: a semi-final between two clubs who have never won the competition. Manchester City were new winners in 2023, the first since Chelsea 11 years earlier.

So this has the potential to prove one of the biggest and best nights in the history of either Arsenal or PSG. Mikel Arteta moves Mikel Merino back into midfield in the reshuffle caused by Thomas Partey being suspended while Luis Enrique prefers Desire Doue to Bradley Barcola. Neither decision is much of a surprise.

87% of PSG’s pressures in the Champions League this season have been applied with high-intensity; the highest percentage of any team.

Meanwhile, midfielder Joao Neves (715) is the player with the most high-intensity pressures applied in the tournament this term.

Who will win tonight’s Champions League semi-final first leg?

Arsenal have home advantage but PSG are a surging force who seem on track to lift the European title for the first time.