Mbappe named on PSG bench for Bayern clash after late fitness test

Kylian Mbappe will hope to make an impact off the bench when Paris Saint-Germain host Bayern Munich in Tuesday’s much-anticipated Champions League last-16 encounter.

The forward was expected to miss the first leg after suffering a thigh injury earlier in February, but he returned to training ahead of schedule and was named among the substitutes. PSG head coach Christophe Galtier said he’d assess Mbappe’s fitness Tuesday morning.

Mbappe’s exclusion from the starting lineup allows Warren Zaire-Emery to make his first Champions League start at just 16. Zaire-Emery scored two goals over 11 Ligue 1 appearances for PSG, but he’s started in just two of those games.

“I am very satisfied with his performances,” Galter said of Zaire-Emery. “I have to bring competition into the squad. If a young player of 16-and-a-half, soon to be 17, seems more suitable to me, then he will play.”

Thomas Muller, Serge Gnabry, and Alphonso Davies are included on Bayern’s 11-man bench. January signing Joao Cancelo joins former PSG winger Kingsley Coman in Julian Nagelsmann’s XI. French defender Dayot Upamecano will come face-to-face with Argentine superstar Lionel Messi two months on from their meeting in the World Cup final.

PSG starting XI: Donnarumma; Hakimi, Ramos, Marquinhos, Mendes; Zaire-Emery, Danilo, Verratti, Soler; Neymar, Messi

Bayern Munich starting XI: Sommer; Pavard, De Ligt, Upamecano, Cancelo; Goretzka, Kimmich, Musiala; Coman, Choupo-Moting, Sane