The budgetary distance determines the character and culture of each of the teams that face each other this Wednesday at the Estadio da Luz to settle the pass to the semifinals of the Champions League. If the starting team that presented in the second round cost PSG 580 million euros, the one that Atalanta had barely exceeded 30 million. Tonight, in addition, the Italian team will not be able to count on Josip Ilicic, their great scorer, the most mysterious loss in Lisbon, who has taken refuge in Slovenia for personal reasons.
The hiring of Neymar and Mbappé in 2017 turned Paris Saint-Germain into the laboratory of the most hyperbolic experiment in European football. A sanctuary of figures willing to compete at the highest level while challenging the limits of professionalism. As Meunier said after signing for Dortmund this summer: “At PSG there were just birthday parties. When I was a member of the Brujas, we celebrated birthdays by playing dice. In Paris it was just outrageous. That is the philosophy of the club. You rent a palace and have parties with hundreds of people. More than players they are stars ”.
The calendar
Quarters
1. Atalanta-PSG. This Wednesday. Estádio da Luz.
2. Leipzig-Athletic. This Thursday. José Alvalade.
3. Barcelona-Bayern. Friday 14. Estádio da Luz.
4. Manchester City-Lyon. Saturday 15. José Alvalade.
Semifinals
Winners 1-2. Tuesday 18. Estádio da Luz.
Winners 3-4. Wednesday 19. José Alvalade.
Final
Sunday 23. Estádio da Luz.
All games, at 9:00 p.m. (Movistar LC).
In tune with this sentence, Neymar Júnior enlivened the team's concentration by viralizing a video montage in which he fuses his face with Shakira's body, performing and dancing with Luck .
The players live well in Paris. Technicians don't. Determined to impose a certain labor rigor, Unai Emery fell prey to the whirlpool before the settlement was signed in 2018. The Qatari sheiks who govern PSG believed that the Spanish coach was an eccentric man, insisting so much on disciplinary matters. Until they met his successor, the German Thomas Tuchel. Now the sheikhs - by contrast - prove that Emery really was a moderate. According to information from the French media, with L'Équipe at the helm, the leaders have had enough of Tuchel. If he is eliminated against Atalanta they promise to throw him out as they did with Emery, Blanc, or Ancelotti, all fallen in the attempt to win the Champions League. The conquest of the great UEFA title is the only existential justification for the project that since 2011 has been directed by the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar in Paris.
"If Mbappé trains well, tomorrow he will be with us," said Tuchel on Tuesday, who injured the fifth metatarsal of his left foot and attended training and the press conference with crutches and a splint on his damaged leg. The French forward has just recovered from an ankle injury. Verratti, with muscular problems, will continue to leave.
PSG is a weighted giant. Victim of his peculiar philosophy as well as of Ligue 1, a championship without pressure. For not pressing, it was suspended in March due to the pandemic and was not resumed any more. In the last five months, PSG played just two cup games. Atalanta, meanwhile, played 13 Serie A matches.
