Not even two whole months since last season's final in Lisbon, the UEFA Champions League is back. It isn't just the date that's strange to see, so is the line-up for tonight's match day 1, which includes teams such as Istanbul Basaksehir from the Turkish Superlig, Rennes from France's Ligue 1 and Ferencvaros from Hungary's Nemezti Bajnoksag I (never heard of it either), all of whom are making their Champions League debut or return after decades away.

The most reassuring sight is Manchester United of the English Premier League taking on perennial Ligue 1 champions Paris Saint-Germain at the Parc des Princes. Both veterans of the Champions League, the sides have only ever faced each other once before in the tournament: in the 2018/19 season, PSG won the first leg 2-0 then lost the second to United 3-1.

Manchester United's qualification for this Champions League campaign was practically decided in the final game of the season. Having spent the 2019 portion of the Premier League balancing wins, losses and draws, the Red Devils went unbeaten from February 1 onwards, eking their way up the table to third place. They also put together a commendable run in the Europa League, where they got knocked out in the semifinal by eventual winners Sevilla.

PSG on the other hand have become a perennial competitor in the Champions League ever since they got taken over by the Qatar Sports Investment group. They reached the final of the foreshortened 2019/20 season but were beaten by Bayern Munich.

Typically, the finalists should be the favorites when going up against a team that came up from the Europa League, however the manner in which PSG so recently lost could make Manchester United think their opponents are there for the taking. Les Parisiens spent most of the second half acting bratty, playing for fouls and, when they did concede, very clearly mentally crumbled.

Not only are they unlikely to have built mental fortitude in barely eight weeks, manager Thomas Tuchel has said he has just 11 healthy players. While he will be pleased that his strike team of Kylian Mbappe and Neymar are fighting fit, confirmed out of this game are regular starters Juan Bernat, Mauro Icardi, Thilo Kehrer, Marco Veratti and Leandro Paredes and Julian Draxler, Marquinhos and Danilo Pereira are expected to start on the bench.

Another player missing from the PSG squad is Edinson Cavani, who transferred to Manchester United in the summer transfer window. While he has recently been dealing with his COVID-19 quarantine and not part of the squad in France, United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is also missing captain Harry Maguire, Marcus Rojo and Phil Jones from his standard line up.

This would suggest United go into this as the favorites, but their record in the 2020/21 Premier League season has been appalling. A 3-1 loss to Crystal Palace and a spectacular 6-1 capitulation to Tottenham Hotspur sandwich a 3-2 win over Brighton, a game that officially ended 2-2. The referee then decided to restart it because of a VAR decision and award Manchester a penalty officially listed as taking place 10 minutes into added time. Only their 4-1 win over Newcastle last week counts as anything genuinely positive.

PSG, whose season started with four games in 10 days, began with two shock losses to Lens and Marseille but have since righted the ship and won the following five by an aggregate of 16-1. The momentum is on their side and if they can put together a team of second stringers to go alongside their world class forwards, they should be able to handle Manchester United, but if United truly give it their best, they could force PSG to break.

(Cover image: PSG's Kylian Mbappe and Manchester United's Marcus Rashford during their Champions League game at the Parc des Princes, Paris, France, March 7, 2019. /Getty)