January 22, 2025, Parc des Princes. Manchester City lead 2-0, and everything autumn had made Paris fear comes rushing back: can this team really survive at this level without its former king? Then the match changes shape. Dembélé pulls one back, Barcola equalises, João Neves turns it around, Ramos completes the turnaround. In thirty-six minutes, Luis Enrique's idea stops being a speech. It becomes proof.
Champions League - League Phase · 2025-01-22
Paris Saint-Germain4-2Manchester City
50'J. Grealish0-1
53'E. Haaland0-2
56'O. Dembélé1-2
60'B. Barcola2-2
78'João Neves3-2
90+3'Gonçalo Ramos4-2
They were quicker, faster, they won the duels, we could not cope. The best team won.
Pep Guardiola
Post-match press conference after PSG 4-2 Man City, January 22, 2025
Full Pep Guardiola press conference after PSG 4-2 Man City
January also brings the missing piece. Kvaratskhelia arrives from Napoli, not to turn PSG back into a team of stars, but to give the collective its final balance. On the left, he stretches. In the middle, Dembélé becomes the false nine who presses, drops and frees the others. On the right, Doué grows into the spaces. PSG are no longer just looking for names. They are looking for connections.
Incredible, Dembélé as a number 9, that's the idea of the century and it all comes down to the coach.
Jean-Louis Gasset
Press conference, April 2025
4-3-3
The Luis Enrique system: 4-3-3 false 9
Knockout Phase
Brest are swept aside 10-0 over two legs, but the real test is Liverpool. At the Parc, Paris play one of those matches that should settle everything and settle nothing: massive dominance, chances, 28 shots, and Alisson keeping almost everything out. Liverpool leave with an impossible 1-0. At Anfield, PSG have to win twice: first in open play, then in the battle of nerves. Dembélé scores early, Donnarumma stops Núñez and Jones, and Paris takes what it had so often let slip away.
Champions League - Round of 16 (2nd leg) · 2025-03-11
Liverpool0-1Paris Saint-Germain
12'O. Dembélé0-1
Penalties: 1 - 4
PSG vs Liverpool - 1st leg at Parc des Princes
28
PSG shots
Liverpool: 2
70%
PSG possession
9
Alisson saves
It was the best game of football I was ever involved in.
Arne Slot
After Liverpool's penalty shootout elimination, Round of 16, Anfield, March 11, 2025
Aston Villa remind Paris that nothing will be clean or comfortable: PSG go through, but on the edge of collapse. Then come Arsenal, and with them another question. Can this team impose its idea without betraying itself? At the Emirates, Dembélé strikes in the 4th minute. At the Parc, Fabián Ruiz opens the way, Hakimi closes the door. PSG are no longer just surviving the biggest nights. They are starting to control them.
Champions League - Semi-final (1st leg) · 2025-04-29
Arsenal0-1Paris Saint-Germain
4'O. Dembélé0-1
Champions League - Semi-final (2nd leg) · 2025-05-07