Key events
Show key events only
Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature
PSG hit the post!
3 min: Echegini lets fly from 25 yards and the ball skims along the wet grass and crashes into the inside of the post, across the goalline before spinning out for a goal kick on the other side of the goal! Middleton-Patel got nowhere near that in the United goal and was lucky to see it bounce clear. PSG can’t come much closer to scoring!
2 min: PSG free-kick deep in their own half and Earps takes it, receiving both cheers and boos from the home fans in the break of play.
SharePeeeeeeeeeep!
And we’re off at Old Trafford!
The teams are out! United in their traditional red and black, PSG in their changed white strip. Old Trafford is nowhere near full, but that was never the aim here. It remains a historic evening for this women’s side.
PSG keeper tonight Mary Earps was interviewed by the Guardian’s Donald McRae earlier this month.
It followed three exclusive extracts from Earps’ new book that we carried on our website. You can read them here.
Fans have photos taken in front of the Mary Earps mural outside Old Trafford. The goalkeeper left United for PSG in 2024. Photograph: Carl Recine/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 15.00 EST
A huge shock in Munich as Bayern roar back from 2-0 down to beat Arsenal 3-2! That game has just finished … wow!
Here’s an interview we did with Karchaoui earlier this year.
For PSG, Jackie Groenen starts against her former club, having left Manchester United in 2022. Romee Leuchter is one to watch up top, leading the scoring standings in the French top flight with six goals. Olga Carmona, who scored Spain’s winner against England in the 2023 World Cup final and signed from Real Madrid this summer, starts at left back. In front of her on the left, captain Sakina Karchaoui is a huge threat. Rasheedat Ajibade is an exciting young forward on the bench, also a new arrival from a Madrid side in Atlético.
That’s a bold Manchester United starting XI! Both Terland and Toone drop to the bench with five changes made from the side that lost to Aston Villa: Middleton-Patel, Sandberg, Zigiotti, Awujo and Malard all coming into the team. If fans are wondering where goalkeeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce is, the manager Marc Skinner has just provided an update:
Phallon took a knock in the game [on Saturday] which puts her out of tonight’s game. We will reassess her over the next couple of days.”
Winger Celin Bizet Donnum, formerly of PSG of course, is out with a back injury. With Millie Turner still out and Dominique Janssen suspended, Gabby George starts at centre back alongside captain Maya Le Tissier.
Updated at 14.29 EST
Team news!
Manchester United: Middleton-Patel, Riviere, Le Tissier, George, Sandberg, Miyazawa, Awujo, Zigiotti Olme, Park, Malard, Rolfo.
Subs: Rendell, Blundell, Toone, Terland, Galton, Naalsund, Williams, Griffiths.
PSG: Earps, Chagas, de Almeida, Mbock, Carmona, Ebayilin, Groenen, Karchaoui, Ajibade, Leuchter, Echegini.
Subs: Kiedrzynek, Toussaint, Samoura, Brennskag-Dorsin, Gaetino, Elimbi, Graziani, Diakite, Fatier, Benera, Kanjinga, Morissaint.
Elsewhere tonight in the Champions League, things are going very well for Arsenal at Bayern Munich, with the Gunners 2-0 up at half-time. Live updates for the second half are available here, with Taha Hashim.
SharePreamble
When Mary Earps left Manchester United for PSG last summer, the goalkeeper didn’t mince her words. “[United] is about to undergo a period of transition, and unfortunately I don’t feel it aligns with the timing of where I’m at in my career, therefore I think now is the right time to make a change and embark on a new challenge.”
Sadly, her remarks felt justified. The week before Earps’ move was announced, it was revealed by the Guardian that United women’s team would be moving into portable buildings at the club’s Carrington training complex this season to allow the men’s squad to use the women’s building while the men’s indoor facilities were being revamped. United had finished the 2023-24 season in fifth, almost mid-table, 15 points adrift of Champions League qualification and although they had won the FA Cup at Wembley in May, club owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe decided not to turn up, choosing instead to attend the men’s side’s Premier League defeat at Arsenal. This did not feel like a club where world-class talent was given the proper chance to shine. Remember United were the final ‘big’ Premier League side to launch a Women’s Super League team, only doing so in 2018.
Tonight is the first female European match to be played at Old Trafford, so it does at least feel like steps have been made to treat the women’s team with the respect they deserve. Despite faltering at the weekend against Aston Villa, Manchester United have had an excellent season, just four points off WSL leaders Manchester City and are one of only three teams (Lyon and Barcelona) that have won all of their matches in the Champions League. This should be a magnificent occasion.
PSG are still regarded as the second best team in France but departures of key players has meant they are no longer regarded as one of the overall favourites to win the Champions League. Stars Korbin Albert and Marie-Antoinette Katoto, the club’s all-time top goal-scorer, departed for rivals Lyon while midfielder Grace Geyoro was sold for a world-record fee (£1.43m) to London City Lionesses. PSG have got off to a rocky start in the Champions League, losing both their opening games. Their trip to Old Trafford is absolutely crucial to their hopes of qualification. It should be a cracker.
Kick-off: 8pm GMT.