Liverpool facing a new improved Dembele at PSG with numbers to rival Salah

Mo Salah isn’t the only red-hot striker in contention for the Ballon d’Or who will play for runaway league leaders at the Parc des Princes on Wednesday.

The Egyptian superstar has netted 30 goals this season - including 16 in 14 games since mid-December - to help take Liverpool 11 points clear in the Premier League. But 2018 World Cup winner Ousmane Dembele has even better recent stats.

The pacey Paris Saint-Germain forward has scored 25 goals in this campaign but has netted a ridiculous 20 in the last 14 games over the same period, including back-to-back hat-tricks. The French champions are 13 points clear at the top of Ligue 1 and scoring more goals this season than with Kylian Mbappe in the last campaign.

And Dembele, who spent six unfulfilled years at Barcelona and was overshadowed by Mbappe last season, has emerged as the club’s shining new star. "You'd have to ask him what he ate at Christmas,” said Enrique last month. “He is a player full of confidence.

"Back when I played PlayStation as a kid, he was the kind of player you'd choose when you needed someone to change the game. He was already good last season but in 2025 he is even better.”

Barcelona paid an initial £96.5m - in a £135m deal - to buy Dembele from Borussia Dortmund with a chunk of the £199m PSG paid for Neymar in 2017. Now he is finally living up to that price tag.

Former PSG and Liverpool defender Mamadou Sakho added: “Dembele is blowing everything up. He has shut a lot of people up. I’m not surprised because he’s full of talent. Maybe he’s also passed a mental hurdle.”

And former France midfielder Rio Mavuba claimed he would want Dembele, 27, in his team before the 32-year-old Salah. "Why? Because he's taking a step up and he's younger. But even in a coaching sense, I'm still taking Dembélé, because he manages to be decisive, even in key moments."

The exit of Mbappe last summer - following the departures of Lionel Messi and Neymar in 2023 - was supposed to bring the end to the superstar culture at PSG. And president Nasser Al-Khelaifi claimed this weekend: “The star of PSG is the team”. That might be true culturally but not mathematically.

PSG scored 96 goals in their first 39 games in all competitions last season with Mbappe netting 37 and Dembele only one. In this campaign, they have netted 105 including 21 in the last four games. Enrique’s side are unbeaten in 23 matches dating back to the November defeat at Bayern Munich. But performances and goals-per-game have improved since the pressure-relieving Champions League win over Manchester City in January. And Dembele has insisted it is a team effort.

And after scoring his 18th league goal of the season at Lille last weekend, Dembele said: "Since the start of the season, the coach has been telling us to play good football and everyone is participating, everyone wants to be decisive. We're in a very good dynamic and we're going to try to keep it up for as long as possible. We're having fun, everyone is attacking, everyone is defending, we're a very close-knit team, that's how it gets results. It's just fun for 90, 95 minutes.”

Asked to explain his improved form, Dembele added: “A bit of everything. My positioning but especially the mentality, the desire to score and be decisive in every match. I have the ball, I believe in it more in front of goal and it's going in, I'm happy. Liverpool? It's going to be difficult, it's going to be a very good match. We're confident, I think they will too, it's going to be a very good show."