After two weeks, the Champions League table looks exactly how it should, with last season’s champions, Paris Saint-Germain, near the top of the table. The French champions upset Barcelona on the road in their last match and trail Real Madrid and Bayern Münich on goal difference alone.
After winning in Catalonia, Leverkusen should be an easy test for Paris, even at the BayArena in Leverkusen. The match will start at 3 p.m. ET (9 p.m. local).
PSG is a -155 favorite to win and +330 to draw at DraftKings Sportsbook, while Die Werkself is +390.
Paris Saint-Germain vs. Bayer Leverkusen prediction, pick
It’s true that Les Parisiens have looked shaky in their last few matches, drawing to Lille and Strasbourg across the last two weeks of Ligue 1 action, but it’s hard to read too much into early-season Ligue 1 action because PSG has had such a stranglehold over the French top flight across the last decade that it can afford to focus on European competition. Its 2-1 win over Barcelona in the Champions League was one of the more impressive displays that any team has had, as it managed to produce better chances than the Spanish giants despite missing its entire front three from the Champions League-winning squad in May. In that match, it was a pair of youngsters, Senny Mayulu and Gonçalo Ramos, who found the back of the net, and a pair of defenders (Nuno Mendes and Achraf Hakimi) who provided the assists. Les Parisiens have gotten healthier: Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembélé is back in action after missing six weeks with a hamstring injury, as is captain Marquinhos and young wingers Desiré Doué and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. Doué and Kvaratskhelia both saw action in the draw against Strasbourg. PSG should have a strong XI tonight.
That’s bad news for Leverkusen, which sits just outside the top 24 after drawing against both FC Copenhagen and PSV Eindhoven. Die Werkself sit fifth in the Bundesliga, tied with Borussia Dortmund on goal difference, but it already trails rival Bayern Münich by seven points atop the table. Leverkusen management fired Erik ten Hag after just two league matches on the job and appointed the Danish manager Kasper Hjulmand to replace him, and Hjulmand has recorded four wins and four draws in charge, including an impressive 3-1 result against fellow Champions League side Eintracht Frankfurt. But Die Werkself lacks the punch that it did under Xabi Alonso: while defender Álex Grimaldo has had a flying start to the season with four goals in seven matches and youngsters Malik Tillman, Christian Kofane, and Ernest Poku have scored two goals each, it has averaged nearly one fewer shot on target this season than it did in 2024-25. Leverkusen, too, is struggling with injuries: Patrik Shick has missed the last three weeks with a hamstring injury and is questionable, while Tillman sustained a thigh injury in US Men’s National Team training and is out.
Les Parisiens were already the better team, but now that they’re the healthier team as well, this one shouldn’t be very close. Unless Shick is able to play, Die Werkself will have to start Kofane up front, and while he’s a talented youngster who’s netted in each of his past two matches, he has converted 2.1 expected goals’ worth of chances into two goals and hasn’t been good enough yet to garner a call-up to the Cameroonian national team. It’ll be a tough challenge for him against a PSG back line that includes arguably the two best wing-backs (Mendes and Hakimi) and excellent center-backs in Marquinhos and Willian Pacho. Les Parisiens are also too strong in the attack for a Leverkusen back line that will likely be missing Jarell Quansah and Lucas Vázquez, as well as defensive midfielder Exequiel Palacios. PSG should take this one easily.
