They can't wait to be there. Listening to Thomas Tuchel, the Parisians would like to teleport to March 11 to "return" the match against Dortmund and win their ticket to the quarter-finals of the Champions League. Only here, by then, after having partly reacted against Bordeaux (4-3) last Sunday, PSG still has three stages before it. Before going to challenge Lyon, Wednesday, in the semi-final of the Coupe de France and then move to Strasbourg, next Saturday, the Parisians therefore receive Dijon this Saturday.
And it is from this second consecutive meeting at home that Thomas Tuchel intends to see the bad vibes finally go away. Since Neymar's injury on February 1, against Montpellier (5-0) in a match also marked by the stormy outing of Kylian Mbappé unhappy to be replaced, nothing smiles too much for Parisians. Latest setbacks to date: the injuries of Herrera and especially Thiago Silva. Combined with the suspensions of Verratti and Meunier against Dortmund, they force Thomas Tuchel to rethink his team compositions.
Paris, like a laboratory
In this context, the suspension of Marco Verratti for this meeting against Dijon falls rather well. It allows the German coach to already test the game system he will use in the Champions League. Even if he doesn't necessarily do it with enthusiasm. At the time of talking about the replacement of Marquinhos in central defense to compensate for the absence of Thiago Silva against Dortmund, he said that he still had to "think a little" and recalled how much in his eyes the influence of "Marqui" in the midfield was "bigger".
So this is a kind of laboratory of three games that comes to Tuchel to perfect his team and sharpen his choices before the Champions League. Even if, between the suspension of Neymar this Saturday and that of Kimpembe in Lyon, he finally has only the last meeting in Strasbourg to benefit from a complete team. Provided of course that no one is injured before the Champions League meeting ... The best news for Tuchel would be to have only to choose between Edinson Cavani and Mauro Icardi to know who will evolve in attack next to Kylian Mbappé March 11, a date that seems both so far and so close to Parisians today.
