Paris St Germain have knocked out Barcelona and holders Bayern Munich on their way to facing Manchester City in their Champions League semi-final first leg on Wednesday.
Manchester City take on a PSG side stacked with talent such as Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and Angel Di Maria leading the line and Marco Verratti in midfield, but manager Pep Guardiola said he would not be changing their blueprint when playing Mauricio Pochettino's side.
City last reached a semi-final in 2016 under Manuel Pellegrini, when they were knocked out by Real Madrid. Guardiola is hoping to go one step further.
City's European Cup and UCL history
Many younger football fans will automatically associate the name of Manchester City with the Champions League, but the sky-blue side of Manchester progressing to the latter stage of European football's premium competition is a recent phenomenon.
Before the 2011/12 season, Manchester City had only participated once in UEFA's top club competition once, that was back in the 1968/69 season after their previous English First Division win the previous season. Their European adventure was a brief one however with a first round elimination at the hands of Turkish champions Feberbahce on an 2-1 aggregate scoreline.
Since the 2011/12 season, City have never failed to not qualify for the group stage of the UEFA Champions League and despite domestic dominance in the Premier League, only in the 2015/16 season did the Sky-blues get close to major European glory in reaching the semi-final of the competition.
Managed by current Betis manager Manuel Pellegrini at the time, City faced Real Madrid in the two legged semi-final with a tense 0-0 in Manchester in the first leg.
A packed Bernabéu witnessed a 1-0 home win for Real Madrid with a Fernando o.g in the 20th minute deciding the tie in a game where City showed limited attacking ambition with a certain Noel Gallagher watching on from the VIP area of the ground.
PSG looking to avenge 2019 final defeat
A 1-0 win over Rapid Vienna in the 1995/96 European Cup Winners Cup is PSG's only taste of European glory (if you excuse the 2001 InterToto win) and since their acquisition by (Qatar Sports Investments) QSI in the summer of 2011, winning European football's Champions League has become something of an obsession for all at the Parisian club.
Last season's pandemic hit competition was as close as the Ligue 1 side got. In the one off games staged in Lisbon, PSG overcame plucky Atalanta and saw off Leipzig in the semi-final with a convincing 3-0 win to set up a final against Bayern Munich.
A solitary Kingsley Coman goal for the Bundesliga side just before the hour mark was enough to see Bayern win the title and break Parisian hearts.
PSG had a reputation of chokers after memorable meltdowns in recent years, but they are now in the semi-finals for the second year in a row.
"The club has grown, we are now among the top four, five or six teams across the leagues," said Neymar, who despite not scoring produced a sterling performance in the return leg against Bayern.
"PSG now get the respect they deserve. We have all the qualities to put hour hands on the trophy."