Kylian Mbappé's phenomenal goalscoring, Angel Di Maria's artful prompting and a white-hot atmosphere that will fire up the French champions…all reasons Paris Saint-Germain can beat Borussia Dortmund in Tuesday's UEFA Champions League first-leg tie.
ligue1.com lays out five reasons why Thomas Tuchel's men can storm the Signal Iduna Park and set themselves up well for the return leg at the Parc des Princes on 11 March.
1) Awesome firepower
Both teams' strength is on the front foot. Dortmund have their attacking weapons in Jadon Sancho and Erling Haaland, but captain Marco Reus is missing through injury, and Paris have an even more impressive array of talent going forward.
Kylian Mbappé has struck 24 times and provided 15 assists in just 28 competitive games for PSG this season, including five goals and four assists in the Champions League, while Neymar, who looks set to play in Dortmund, has been involved in an incredible 25 goals in just 15 competitive outings this season.
WATCH: PSG's forwards at work against Lyon
Mauro Icardi also scored five in the group stage, and that helped the French champions find the net a total of 17 times, a tally bettered only by Bayern Munich and Tottenham, and is nine more goals than Dortmund managed in their six matches.
2) Di Maria the secret weapon
OK, he's not that secret: he's a world-famous established Argentina international who used to play for Real Madrid and Manchester United. But Di Maria still does not get the same spotlight as Mbappé and Neymar, and that means his sensational form this season has not been as applauded as it might have been.
He has been involved in 16 goals, scoring six of them, in his last 15 league games, and the 32-year-old netted two and set up four in six group stage games to help PSG into the knockout stages as he produces some of the best football of his career.
"Thomas Tuchel is one of the those coaches that gives me confidence, like Jose Mourinho or Carlo Ancelotti," El Fideo explained. "That enables me to be at my best." And the feeling is mutual from Tuchel, who describes the opportunity to coach Di Maria as "a gift".
3) Best defence in Europe
After conceding four goals to Amiens SC, some may take this stat with a pinch of salt, but what Serhou Guirassy & Co. managed to do in Saturday's incredible 4-4 draw, some of Europe's top players could not.
PSG conceded just two goals in their unbeaten group-stage run, and those came against record European champions Real Madrid at their Santiago Bernabeu home in a 2-2 draw, the only match PSG did not win in the group stage.
Only Stade de Reims have conceded fewer goals in Ligue 1 Conforama this season than the league leaders, who will have Thiago Silva and Marquinhos — their first-choice centre-back pairing — available for the trip to the Signal Iduna Park.
4) Ich liebe German teams
The pair have only met in European competition once before: in the 2010-11 UEFA Europa League group stage they drew 1-1 in Germany and 0-0 at the Parc des Princes, a result that would take PSG into the quarter-finals for the first time since 2016-17. But the French champions will be hoping it is not quite as nail-biting as that, and they have an excellent record against Bundesliga sides.
In 15 European ties, they have won nine times and lost just four, outscoring their opponents 25-17. They are yet to lose in home games, winning six of seven, and if that was not enough, they have Tuchel to give them the inside track on their opponents: the PSG coach was boss at Dortmund between 2015 and 2017, winning the DFB Cup in his second season.
5) Bring it on!!
Dortmund have one of the most passionate followings in Europe with 80,000 supporters packed into their Signal Iduna Park. They will have that again on Tuesday as they try to protect an unbeaten home run that stretches back to April 2019.
But PSG's players — all of them seasoned internationals — will relish the white-hot atmosphere, and there should be no problem for them in getting fired up for a game.
"In football, motivation is very important. When you don't have anything to play for, it's difficult to stay focused," admitted Marco Verratti after the surprise defeat to Reims on the last day of the 2018/19 season with the title wrapped up long before. "It can happen that your opponent is more motivated than you."
That is something that will not happen on Tuesday, because PSG have everything to play for.