David Luiz to miss Real Madrid showdown

Paris Saint-Germain defender David Luiz will miss the clash with Real Madrid in the Champions League on Wednesday due to a knee injury.

The Brazil international picked up the problem during his country’s 2018 World Cup qualifiers earlier this month and had been battling to be fit for the key Group A encounter.

Head coach Laurent Blanc has now confirmed the 28-year-old will not be ready for the game.

“Apart from David Luiz’s absence, we’ll have almost all the squad,” Blanc said on Tuesday.

“We’ll have an almost complete squad for the game. We’ll get the players recovered.”

Luiz’s fellow centre-back Thiago Silva is confident PSG are a better side than last season as they look to make it three wins from three in the group so far.

“The first goal is to finish first in the group,” he said. “If we win tomorrow [Wednesday], we can go for the draw in Madrid.

“It’ll be important to recover the ball as quickly as possible when we lose it. That will be decisive.

“We’re stronger this year than last year. We’re playing better and we started the season better.

“If we play as we usually do on the ball, we’ll have a great match.”