Red Bull Salzburg vs PSG Prediction: Visitors to claim vital victory in Austria

It's been a tough start to life as a head coach in the Uefa Champions League for former Liverpool assistant manager Pep Lijnders, who has overseen four defeats in Red Bull Salzburg's first five league phase matches, with a points total of three putting them 32nd in the 36-team table heading into match week six.

Their opponents at Red Bull Arena on Tuesday (20:00, TNT Sports 4), Paris Saint-Germain, have also endured a difficult campaign thus far, sitting 25th on four points, one place and two points off a play-off spot. Read on for my Red Bull Salzburg vs PSG prediction, complete with all the latest team news and match odds, ahead of this midweek contest in Austria that could go a long way to deciding the fate of these two teams.

Team News

Red Bull Salzburg have a lengthy injury list which includes Karim Konate, Maurits Kjaergaard, Fernando, Janis Blaswich and Edmund Baidoo. The quartet will all miss Tuesday's game and the participation of Aleksa Terzic, Leandro Morgalla and Kamil Piatkowski is also in doubt.

Die Roten Bullen drew 2-2 with Rapid Wien in the Austrian Bundesliga on Saturday, twice taking the lead through Nicolas Capaldo, who has scored in three consecutive appearances, and Dorgeles Nene. Both players will hope to have done enough to earn starts in the Champions League, although Bobby Clark is one attacker who could come into the side after only appearing as a late substitute on the weekend.

French midfielder Lucas Gourna-Douath could also earn a start against the reigning Ligue 1 champions.

Football Odds

Lucas Hernandez remains a long-term injury absentee for the visitors, who are also without the suspended Ousmane Dembele following the winger's red card in last month's 1-0 defeat to Bayern Munich. 18-year-old midfielder Senny Mayulu is also out injured.

PSG are winless in their last three matches, drawing 1-1 at home to Nantes and 0-0 away to Auxerre after their Champions League loss in Bavaria. Marco Asensio, Joao Neves and Desire Doue were among their second-half substitutes at the weekend and the trio could come into Luis Enrique's thinking in midweek.

Red Bull Salzburg vs PSG Odds

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Salzburg are 13/2 to get off the mark at home in the league phase with a win on Tuesday, giving the Lijnders' side an implied probability of 13.3%, while PSG are 3/10, or a 76.9% chance, to claim an all-important three points in Austria.

The draw is priced at 4/1, both teams to score at 8/13, and over 3.5 total goals at 1/1.

Bradley Barcola is PSG's leading scorer in Ligue 1 this season with 10 goals but has yet to find the net in Europe. Nevertheless, the 22-year-old is still 21/20 favorite in the anytime goalscorer market for Tuesday's match.

Salzburg striker Petar Ratkov, who has struck just twice this term, is first up for the hosts at 3/1, while Oscar Gloukh, who saw a penalty saved on Saturday, is next up at 16/5.

Match Result & Total Goals Over/Under 3.5 - PSG & Under 3.5 Goals @ 6/4

Salzburg are three games unbeaten since a 5-0 thrashing at the hands of Bayer Leverkusen in their last European encounter on November 26, a result that confirmed a third straight defeat after back-to-back Austrian Bundesliga losses either side of the international break. However, they've only won once since beating Feyenoord 3-1 in Rotterdam on November 6 which remains the only league phase match in which they have picked up any points.

Injuries have crippled Lijnders' side but that's not the sole reason for their poor form.

PSG, meanwhile, have suffered their own dip in recent weeks and are now three games without a win. The Parisians are still five points clear of Olympique Marseille at the top of the Ligue 1 standings but it's do-or-die time in the Champions League as they need to start picking up points to stand a chance of making the top 24 and, subsequently, the play-offs.

So far, Luis Enrique's charges have only beaten Girona (1-0) and drawn with PSV (1-1), and both results were achieved on home soil, where they also lost to Atletico Madrid (1-2). Away from Paris, the French club have suffered defeats against Arsenal (2-0) and Bayern (1-0).

PSG should be much more confident of claiming success in Salzburg, though. The Austrian outfit are several levels below the quality of both Arsenal and Bayern.

Tuesday's hosts have lost both league phase games at Red Bull Arena, against Brest (0-4) and Dinamo Zagreb (0-2), and are up against it in their bid to reach the play-offs.

I don't think it will be particularly pretty but PSG should have enough quality to pick up all three points in Austria. Just one of their five UCL matches have gone over 2.5 goals this term and that was their 1-2 defeat to Atletico, which still went under 3.5 goals. Salzburg have been involved in more goals but two of their three defeats have seen three or fewer strikes including their latest home game in the competition.

I'm giving some leeway with under 3.5 goals but ultimately, I'm backing a relatively comfortable victory for PSG.

Bet Builder - Achraf Hakimi (PSG) 1+ Shots on Target, Nuno Mendes (PSG) 1+ Fouls, Lucas Gourna-Douath (SAL) 2+ Fouls @ 4/1

The first leg of this Bet Builder requires PSG right-back Achraf Hakimi to record at least one shot on target, something he has done in four of his five UCL appearances this season.

The 26-year-old is averaging 3.4 shots per game and 1.4 shots on target per game having taken six shots v Girona (two on target), two shots v Arsenal (one on target), four shots v PSV (one on target) and five shots v Atletico (two on target) before failing to even muster an attempt against Bayern last time out.

Away to Salzburg, though, I'm expecting Hakimi to find a lot more joy than he did against the German giants, with Salzburg having conceded 15 times already in the league phase - only Slovan Bratislava (18), Young Boys and Red Star Belgrade (both 17) have shipped more goals.

Hakimi has also registered two shots on target in his last two Ligue 1 outings against Nantes and Auxerre, scoring against the former.

On the other side of the pitch, Nuno Mendes is expected to start at left-back for PSG. The Portugal international has made five appearances in this season's Champions League, starting all of his side's league phase matches, and is averaging 1.4 fouls per game.

The 22-year-old didn't commit a single foul against Girona but made one v Arsenal, one v PSV, three v Atletico and two v Bayern, so he looks a likely candidate to concede at least one free-kick on Tuesday.

He could be head-to-head with Salzburg winger Nene, who has been fouled at least once in his last three European appearances against Leverkusen (twice), Feyenoord and Dinamo Zagreb.

Concluding this three-legged Bet Builder is Salzburg midfielder Gourna-Douath, who I am backing to commit at least two fouls against the Parisians. The 21-year-old is averaging 1.5 fouls per game in the competition despite starting just three league phase contests so far, with his fourth outing coming as a 66th-minute substitute away to Sparta Prague, where he conceded one free-kick.

The Frenchman's first start, at home to Brest, saw him make two fouls and he followed that up with another couple against Feneyoord. Gourna-Douath maintained his record of committing exactly two fouls in every UCL start away to Leverkusen last time out where he was hooked at half-time.

Offers

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