All you need to know about the Champions Trophy!
History, stakes and keys to the match! Find out everything you need to know ahead of tonight's Trophée des Champions between Paris Saint-Germain and Lille, kick-off of at 20:00 Paris time at Bloomfield Stadium in Tel Aviv.
A little history...
Paris Saint-Germain is the record holder for victories in the Trophée des Champions, the traditional curtain-raiser for the French football season between the Ligue 1 champion and the winner of the Coupe de France. With ten wins and just three losses, and a current run of eight consecutive victories, Les Rouge et Bleu have three more wins that Lyon, the second-most successful club in the competitions history, with seven.
The match in Tel Aviv will be the first meeting between the two teams in this competition. Lille have never won the Trophée des Champions. Their only previous appearance in this competition came in 2011 and a 5-4 loss to Marseille.
Paris Saint-Germain and Lille will meet for the 96th time in official matches in all competitions. Paris have recorded 39 wins, 25 draws and 31 losses.
26 players played for both teams: Jocelyn Angloma, Mathieu Bodmer, François Brisson, Bernard Bureau, Yohan Cabaye, Aliou Cissé, Lucas Digne, Oumar Dieng, Pierre Dréossi, Pierre-Alain Frau, Idrissa Gueye, Jonathan Ikoné, Mickaël Landreau, Bernard Lama, Christophe Landrin, Edvin Murati, Pascal Nouma, Bernard Pardo, Christian Perez, Stéphane Pichot, Jacky Planchard, Thierry Rabat, David Rozehnal, Younousse Sankharé, Amara Simba and Timothy Weah. Note: Mike Maignan and Boubakary Soumaré, emerged from the Paris Saint-Germain academy but never played an official match for the club.
Dominique Rocheteau is Paris Saint-Germain's top scorer against Lille with eight goals. He is followed by Safet Susic (7), Edinson Cavani and Lucas (5) and Jean-Claude Bras, Kylian Mbappé, Neymar Jr and Pedro Miguel Pauleta (4).
This is the second time the Parisians have travelled to Israel, after a friendly tour in early February 1987.
In the Champions Trophy, Angel Di Maria is the top scorer for Les Rouge et Bleu, with three goals.
The stakes...
Paris Saint-Germain, France's most successful club, will be looking to win a 46th trophy since 1970. Les Rouge et Bleu have won 1 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup (1996), 9 French Ligue 1 championships (1986, 1994, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020), 14 Coupe de France (1982, 1983, 1993, 1995, 1998, 2004, 2006, 2010, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2021), 9 Coupe de la Ligue (1995, 1998, 2008, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2020), 10 Trophée des Champions (1995, 1998, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020), 1 National championship title (Ligue 2) (1971) and 1 UEFA Intertoto Cup (2001). Marseille is the second-most successful club in French football with 25 trophies
The keys to the match...
469 players have worn the colours of Paris Saint-Germain in official competition before this first game of the 2021-22 season. Nine players in the Paris squad for the match could make a debut appearance in the Trophée des Champions: El Chadaille Bitshiabu, Nathan Bitumazala, Eric Junior Dina Ebimbe, Nehemiah Fernandez Veliz, Dennis Franchi, Ismael Gharbi, Achraf Hakimi, Alexandre Letellier and Georginio Wijnaldum.