Here is the match before, about which the most discerning PSG connoisseurs could write a thesis. Historically, the capital club suffered a massacre a few days before the return of the Champions League, with this Wednesday PSG-Real Sociedad, four sleeps after this tempting PSG-Lille. The main scare of the week having enveloped the condition of Kylian Mbappé’s left ankle, perhaps Luis Enrique’s team is safe from further bleeding in its ranks.
Victim of a violent gesture by Lilian Brassier against Brest on Wednesday (3-1), the world champion “did not train” and “he stayed inside the Campus, so as not to take any risks but he will be available,” reassures his coach.
If the captain of the Blues were to play this Saturday against the Mastiffs, he would have participated in all PSG matches this season since his reinstatement during the 2nd day in Toulouse. Which tells in another way about his healthy lifestyle and his ability to avoid injuries, an idea that he will have to extend this February 10 evening just in case. Him like his partners.
Ramos en pointe?
Paris needs sensual waves to believe in its European dream as it will start favorite against the team of San Sebastián next Wednesday. Even if this time he has a larger group, with several solutions at each position. It has a larger workforce than last year, for example, even if quantity does not rhyme with quality.
Since they regularly left the starting lineup, no one regrets the presence on the bench of Randal Kolo Muani or Gonçalo Ramos. Reality always decides and Luis Enrique will have given several chances to the vice-world champion from Frankfurt. The Portuguese seems less polished.
“No match should be underestimated”
They will perhaps both be at the kick-off while PSG won the match of the week which counted – their round of 16 of the Coupe de France -, they are eight points ahead of Nice and therefore the right to make mistakes against Lille, valiant 4th in the championship, with the always fascinating work of Paulo Fonseca, one of the best finds in Ligue 1 on the benches. And that the coach at the head of PSG remains a lover of change, often only because he likes to change, without any other idea behind it.
“We are at a point in the season where we play every three days. We must plan the options with the staff to always be competitive. We must not underestimate any match,” insists Luis Enrique.
But this comfort of a match to turn and not necessarily important in the race for the title remains misleading. Because also historically, PSG is judged and measured on its last outing before the European plunge. We probe its dynamics, its strengths, the good students and those we don’t want to see again in the middle of the week.
PSG-Lille will not escape the rule even if on February 14, we will have already forgotten everything, the Champions League calling on other forces, psychological and technical, coated with an intensity that Ligue 1 never offers. Lille , it is therefore a repetition but which has nothing to do with it and we fall into the trap each time.
Historically again, continuation and end, Paris advances with the particularity, almost unique in Europe, of transforming itself on D-Day, sometimes ordinary in the championship and almost grandiose in the Champions League, at least during its round of 16 first leg. Looking at his DNA, it’s as if we had to wish him to miss his match against Lille this evening. That would almost be a good sign, basically.
