Lille facing a monster, PSG facing its (almost) double – Liberation

We almost waited: an incredible slump on Monday canceled the draw for the knockout stages of the Champions League organized in Nyon (Switzerland). In fact, a prohibited confrontation between Manchester United and the Spaniards of Villarreal – the two teams come from the same qualifying group – having unbalanced the whole table. Suddenly, the former Russian Arsenal striker Andrei Arshavin returned three hours later to shoot the balls and, all things considered, the two French clubs in the running were plunged into the same molasses.

Fantasy Wealth

At noon, Lille OSC, first in their group, had been offered nothing less than the reigning European champions, Chelsea FC, second (behind Juventus) by accident during the initial pool round, which often costs more expensive to English clubs under great pressure during their domestic championship when Real Madrid, Benfica Lisbon or Paris-SG are walking in theirs. At 3 p.m., it was still Chelsea who was designated on the route of the Northerners. A fantastically rich squad seen from France, including an attacking division (English internationals Mason Mount and Callum Hudson-Odoi, German internationals Timo Werner and Kaï Havertz, former Ajax Amsterdam Hakim Ziyech, l ‘American Christian Pulisic and, last but not least, the Belgian Romelu Lukaku, perhaps one of the two or three best strikers on the planet today) which alone is equivalent in salary to the added budget of two or three Ligue 1 clubs.

The rigour, the aggressiveness, a defensive solidity without equivalent in Europe (although it has been somewhat tested recently), this athletic modernity – always more intensity and races – carried by their coach, Thomas Tuchel: Lille s is seen offering a monster. And the Paris-SG too. But less real: Real Madrid, coached by their former coach (from 2011 to 2013) Carlo Ancelotti, semi-finalist of the Champions League last season. At noon, it was Manchester United who was on the road to the Parisians, and if it is in both cases a reunion, Real having left Paris-SG at this stage of the eighth in 2018 before Manchester United do the same a season later, it is not forbidden to think that Neymar and others have won the change.

Technical spells

While Manchester United should benefit from a new impetus with their new coach Ralf Rangnick, theoretician of counter-pressing (pressing as soon as the ball is lost), who should shake up a Mancunian locker room necessarily anxious to please the new boss, Real Madrid is a team at the end of the cycle, clever enough to assert the technical spells of Karim Benzema, Luka Modric or Toni Kroos when given the time, but which does not have (or no longer) the athletic quality and the intensity capable of overflowing a Parisian team which has somewhat the same strengths and faults as it: extraordinary technical capacities but difficulties in playing at very high speed during the ninety minutes of a match (even ninety five). In other words: FC Liverpool, Bayern Munich or Ajax Amsterdam could have put Paris-SG in the red and Lionel Messi or Angel Di Maria would have reached their age. Not Real Madrid.

There remains an incomparable experience on the Spanish side, the ability to be respected by the referees (the Parisians are still running after) and a sense of great evenings – which Paris-SG can also nevertheless claim for two seasons. First leg at the Parc des Princes in mid-February, return to Spain in early March.