Guingamp - Paris Saint Germain preview - PSG need to bounce back

Paris St Germain face a tough task as they travel to Guingamp looking to bounce back from their midweek defeat to Barcelona in the Champions League.

The reigning Ligue 1 champions suffered their first defeat of the season in all competitions when they went down 3-1 at the Nou Camp on Wednesday, but they travel to the Stade du Roudourou to take on a side that have found form themselves.

Spearheaded by five goals in three games from Claudio Beauvue, Jocelyn Gourvennec's team have climbed out of the drop zone domestically and also progressed into the knockout stage of the Europa League this month.

Speaking after the 2-1 win over PAOK that booked Guingamp's passage into the last 32 of European football's second-tier competition, midfielder Younousse Sankhare said they are in confident mood ahead of facing Blanc's men.

"The objective is achieved. We had to get out of this pool and out of the relegation zone in the league and I think we are on the right track," he told Le Telegramme.

"Now we get PSG in the league. We will do the maximum. But now all that is happening to us is really good."

An intriguing sub-plot of the clash in Brittany will be Beauvue and Zlatan Ibrahimovic - two of Ligue 1's hottest goalscorers - going head-to-head.

Ibrahimovic's strike against former club Barca in midweek takes his recent tally to five in four matches in all competitions as he kicks his season into gear following a spell on the sidelines in October.

PSG go into the match in second place and unbeaten in Ligue 1, while their passage into the last 16 of the Champions League was secured despite the loss in midweek.

Remarkably, Blanc's position has been questioned by some of the French press in the wake of that loss, but he said afterwards it was largely an even contest.

"Barcelona were not any more dangerous than us," he said on PSG's website. "If we had been better at the back, we could have hoped for a better result. We are disappointed because with a little more application, we should have got a better result."