Champions League 2023: Can PSG Achieve a Three-Peat?

The Champions League is back. Madrid awaits on 5 June, the trophy polished, the stage set, and one question hangs over Europe: can anyone stop Paris St-Germain from making history?

PSG chase a third straight title as the new league phase kicks off on Tuesday. Five English sides stand in their way, with Arsenal carrying the weight of expectation after falling just short last season. The holders look vulnerable, the challengers look sharper, and the sense is clear: this year feels open.

Can PSG really do the three-peat?

Julien Laurens does not buy it.

“If PSG do the three-peat, it would be an incredible achievement. I don't think they will do it,” he says. Two in a row, yes. Three? “Impossible unless you've got Cristiano Ronaldo in your team, which they don't.”

The champions have stumbled out of the blocks domestically. Their start has been irregular, their rhythm patchy. Guillem Balague sees the strain of trying to live at the very edge of modern football.

Luis Enrique is still pushing PSG to play on the front foot, with constant movement and suffocating pressure. The league phase, Balague argues, will double as a laboratory: a place to test, to tweak, to accept the odd strange result before the real grind begins in January.

The core of the side remains strong. The expectation from Balague is that PSG will be “very close” again. Laurens goes further: he sees them in the last four at least. But both sense that history might be a step too far.

Arsenal, Bayern, Real, City – the main threat

If not PSG, then who?

Laurens looks towards north London and Bavaria. He does not fully trust the new Jose Mourinho–Real Madrid project and instead leans on continuity and structure.

“I would go for Bayern Munich and Arsenal to reach the final,” he says. “They are probably the teams, other than PSG, who have deserved to be there the most in the past two seasons.”

His winner? Arsenal.

He points straight at the numbers. “They have the best defence in Europe by far and that's what wins you titles.” In Laurens’ bracket, Arsenal lift the trophy, Bayern finish close behind, and PSG bow out in the semi-finals.

Balague’s picture is broader. He sees three clear semi-final candidates: PSG, Barcelona and Arsenal – assuming the draw does not throw them together early.

Arsenal, he notes, have finally learned to win regularly. That psychological block has shifted. With that weight off, their football should flow more freely.

Barcelona, under Hansi Flick, are gathering speed. They still want another centre-back and a number nine – exactly the profile Flick identified to take them up a level – but he already feels they are on the road back to the top.

The fourth semi-finalist? That falls into the hands of the draw. Balague lists Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and Manchester City as the likeliest to fill that final slot.

Players who could shape the season

Laurens singles out five names who could light up this campaign.

At Real Madrid, Jude Bellingham stands at the centre of Mourinho’s plan. Used as a number 10, a role Laurens believes suits him perfectly, Bellingham enters this season off the back of a strong World Cup and a growing sense of inevitability around his performances. Goals, influence, big moments – Laurens expects all of it.

In Italy, Como step into the Champions League for the first time with Cesc Fabregas on the touchline and Nico Paz wearing the number 10. Everything with the ball runs through him. Still “very much in the making”, as Laurens puts it, but already clearly special.

Then comes “Mr Champions League” himself in Laurens’ eyes: Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. Two electric seasons at PSG have turned the Georgian into one of the competition’s defining wide players. From the left, he can dart inside or burn down the outside, threaten with either foot, and score spectacular goals. Laurens sees him firmly in the Ballon d'Or conversation. He is “the guy that gets you on the edge of your sofa”.

Lens return to the Champions League after pushing PSG all the way in Ligue 1, and at the heart of their rise stands Ismaelo Ganiou. Just 21, a powerful, quick, ball-playing centre-back, he looks destined for a major Premier League move once this season is done.

Up front, Donyell Malen has rediscovered himself at Roma after leaving Aston Villa. Under Gian Piero Gasperini, he has been scoring at close to a goal per game as a lone striker. Roma are back on this stage and, according to Laurens, back to being one of the competition’s most entertaining sides. Malen, he believes, is returning to his top level.

Balague offers his own shortlist.

Harry Kane, now at Bayern Munich, is in what he calls a Ballon d'Or “campaign”. The fit is obvious. Bayern’s style feeds his movement, his finishing, his passing. Balague does not expect his level to dip.

At Barcelona, teenage sensation Lamine Yamal is already hungry for more. With Flick demanding a high, aggressive defensive line and intense work off the ball, Yamal has the platform to shine on the biggest stage.

Kvaratskhelia appears again on Balague’s list. He sees another gear in the PSG winger and expects him to drag the French champions through tight games, deciding big nights almost single-handedly. A future Ballon d'Or winner in his eyes.

Farther east, Shakhtar continue their long tradition of polishing Brazilian talent for Europe’s elite. Kaua Elias, 20, could be the next to explode into a multimillion transfer.

And in London, Martin Odegaard looks ready to reclaim control. After an injury-hit campaign, the Arsenal captain has started this season strongly. Balague believes he can dominate games again, and that a more confident Arsenal will lean on his leadership in the defining moments.

Fabregas’ Como, and the outsiders with a puncher’s chance

Balague has a clear soft spot for what Fabregas is building at Como. The Spaniard has turned down offers to stay and shape the club in his image. The lack of suffocating pressure gives him freedom: he can experiment, get things wrong, and keep driving his ideas forward. In Balague’s eyes, Fabregas is now right at the front of modern coaching trends. He expects Como to reach the knock-out stages.

Others will fight just to leave a mark.

LASK, having knocked out Celtic, have already shown they can compete. A home win somewhere in the league phase and a respectable points tally would represent a strong first campaign. Qualification, though, looks beyond them.

Sabah, from Azerbaijan, arrive with an organised, disciplined side but a brutal draw. Trips to Arsenal and Manchester United, plus home games against Barcelona and Borussia Dortmund, form a punishing schedule. Balague still expects them to spring “one or two surprising results”, just not enough to progress.

Then there is Viking. Their group is a gauntlet: Bayern, Atletico, Napoli and Aston Villa. Yet Norwegian football, Balague insists, is full of clever, competitive coaches and players. He believes Viking have enough about them to dream of the knock-outs.

So the trophy waits in Madrid, PSG’s grip loosens ever so slightly, and the challengers circle. Arsenal’s defence, Bayern’s firepower, Barcelona’s resurgence, City’s experience, Real Madrid’s aura – one of them will seize this season. The question is not whether the balance of power will shift, but who will dare to grab it.