Is Paris Saint-Germain the strongest team? Only by reaching this target in the new season is truly successful

Before the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup final, Paris Saint-Germain had a perfect season. However, in the final, they lost 0-3 to Chelsea, which seemed to be weaker, and lost the opportunity to reach the top of the world, which forced them to turn their attention to the next event four years later.

What is "success"?

In this ever-changing world, what will Paris Saint-Germain look like in four years, and how many players will continue to stay at the Princes Stadium, all of which are full of unknowns. But for Paris fans, the challenges of the new season are already in front of them - the eyes of the whole Europe are focused on this, and European football has always been full of powerful teams like Chelsea who can create unpopularity.

At the beginning of the new season, a core question surfaced: What goal should Paris Saint-Germain achieve to be considered "success"? The answer seems self-evident – they have to defend all the existing titles.

In domestic competitions, it seems like a breeze to achieve the goal of the triple crown in Paris. In the Ligue 1, the French Cup and the French Super Cup, they have few real opponents. In the past two seasons, Paris has successfully achieved the "triple crown" achievements in domestic competitions, allowing all domestic honors to be won.

The FIFA Intercontinental Cup (formerly Club World Cup) at the end of this year is also a relatively easy medal to win. Paris only needs to compete in one final, and the opponent will be the South American champion or representative of other continents. In fact, European teams have almost never missed the game since 2013. As for the European Super Cup, the game against Tottenham is indeed more challenging, and the game process fully proves this. But with stronger psychological qualities, after drawing 2-2 in regular time, Paris narrowly defeated his opponent 4-3 through a penalty shootout, and finally won the cup.

However, the only thing that really determines whether Paris fans are "successful" or not is the Champions League. The whole world will pay attention to whether Paris can successfully defend the title, the most difficult honor to protect. Even if they won all five championships, as long as they lack the Champions League trophy, this season will be difficult to be perfect in the hearts of fans.

Since the reform of the Champions League, only Real Madrid has successfully defended its title. Even AC Milan in the 1990s, or Barcelona in 2009-2015, failed to do this. Then, the second question follows: Is Paris Saint-Germain stronger than those Golden Age Milan and Barcelona?

Can Paris be comparable to the peak Milan and Barcelona?

Paris Saint-Germain last season has set a new height that a French team can reach. In the Ligue 1, they not only won the championship, but also reached the top with an absolute advantage - they had 84 points after 34 rounds, leading second place Marseille by up to 19 points. This point is not inferior to the Premier League: Liverpool also won the championship with 84 points in 38 rounds. In fact, if they hadn't secured the championship in advance, Paris would have received more points - they lost to Nice and Strasbourg in the last two rounds to concentrate on preparing for the Champions League.

To comprehensively evaluate Paris's strength last season, you might as well look at their overall performance in various competitions: they played in 65 games in total, achieved a record of 48 wins, 8 draws and 9 losses, scored 168 goals, and conceded only 59 goals.

Perhaps some people may wonder: Why did they lose 9 games? In addition to the two losses in Ligue 1, Paris also lost two games in the 2025 Club World Cup - losing to Bottafogo in the group stage and losing to Chelsea in the final. What is even more surprising is that they lost 5 games in the Champions League last season: in the group stage, they lost to Arsenal (0-2), Bayern Munich (0-1) and Atletico Madrid (1-2); they lost to Liverpool 0-1 in the first leg of the 1/8 finals; and lost to Aston Villa 2-3 in the second leg of the quarter-finals.

Losing 5 games in the Champions League does seem to be too many, and it also makes people doubt Paris's strength. But in fact, the two knockout losses against Liverpool and Villa had no substantial impact, as Paris eventually advanced with a total score.

As for the group stage loss to Arsenal, Bayern and Atletico Madrid, it was because the team was still adapting to the new system without Mbappe at that time, and the tactics had not been fully completed. And once Paris finds the rhythm, they start to "teach" their opponents.

In the Champions League semi-finals, Paris doubled Arsenal, with the scores of 1-0 and 2-1 in the two rounds; in the Club World Cup group stage, they defeated Atletico Madrid 4-0; and in the Club World Cup quarter-finals, they revenge Bayern 2-0, completing the "double debt collection".

Paris' dominance in the European arena is also reflected in their ability to continuously evolve and adapt to the Enrique tactical system. In the first five rounds of the Champions League group stage last season, Paris scored only 3 goals and lost 3 games; but in the last three rounds, they scored 11 goals; they scored 10 goals in two play-offs; and finally swept Inter Milan 5-0 in the final. They then humiliated Real Madrid 4-0 in the Club World Cup.

These results are enough to make Paris proudly claim that they are comparable to Milan and Barcelona at their peak. Because of this, this smooth-running team has not even introduced any major new players this summer.

However, the stability of the lineup does not mean that they can continue to be invincible in the European arena. Although Paris's own strength is still the same, its opponents are also improving. Barcelona will be a tough opponent in his second year of Flick. Unfortunately, the two sides failed to fight at the end of last season and could not directly compare the offensive firepower of the two teams. However, in the European League playoffs, the performance of Barcelona stars has surpassed the limelight of Paris players.

Real Madrid will usher in a complete reconstruction under the leadership of Xavi Alonso. Although he lost to Paris 0-4 in the Club World Cup, Alonso had only been coaching Real Madrid for a month at that time. Don't forget that it was him who used one summer to build Leverkusen from a relegation team to a Bundesliga championship.

In the Premier League, Liverpool will be stronger in Slot's second year coaching. In the Champions League last season, they just lost to Paris in the penalty shootout. Manchester City will no longer be as vulnerable as they used to be. Don’t forget Chelsea, they are the ones that have brought Paris a nightmare.

It can be foreseen that Paris will continue to dominate the domestic arena of France next season. But whether they can continue their kingship in Europe remains unknown - although institutions have listed them as the number one hottest.