Champions League: why PSG have good reason to believe

With the overthrow of Lisbon, which comes after that of Dortmund, Paris can no longer hide. With two matches from the supreme coronation in Europe, PSG is asserting itself as a declared and extremely credible candidate for the final victory on August 23. If there are still some concerns in its wake - the injury of Keylor Navas and the disappearance of Mauro Icardi essentially - Thomas Tuchel's team is moving forward with a force hitherto unheard of in its recent past.

Since 2013 and his return to C1, yes, the capital club have never seemed so close to winning and not only because there are only two games left. “PSG have a good chance of playing in the final,” announces Gian Piero Gasperini, Atalanta Bergamo coach, who is not used to saying what he does not think.

The best current duo

Neymar and Kylian Mbappé, embellished with the left paw of Angel Di Maria, will be associated in the semi-final at the kick-off for the first time since February 18, in Dortmund. Obviously, it is a defeat (2-1), which would tend to prove that the formation of Thiago Silva is not immune to anything even when his two cracks escort him for 90 minutes. It is to forget that the goal, capital, intervenes on a class action of the world champion concluded by the number 10 Brazilian. They were not terrible that day but without them, Paris would watch the rest of the C1 from France.

This is the beauty and the limit of the Parisian game: everything goes through them. The salvation of the team belongs to them, the keys too. The two geniuses of the game, as accomplices on the meadow as Messi with Neymar during the great Barcelona years, change everything. The equalizer against Bergamo comes from Neymar and the victory of the Brazilian genius plus Mbappé with a Choupo-Moting full of coolness at the finish.

VIDEO. Atalanta-PSG: "Paris is made to enter the history of football"

Their level of involvement opens up all possible fields. In private, the two men keep discussing their obsession with raising the Cup with big ears. The famous containment pact - win everything until August 23 to enter the history of the club and French football - mainly emanates from this heavenly duo. They are the initiators.

The cancellation of the Ballon d'Or France Football in this very special year of 2020 has not damaged their morale because they are not really playing for them in this Lisbon summer. They decided to give everything to PSG.

PSG Express

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If there has never been the slightest doubt for the Frenchman, Neymar's rage, the high point he set for himself, his words after - "I never thought of returning to the House. No one is going to take my head off that I want to go to the final ”- draw a hurricane that threatens all of Europe.

The best mind of the moment

PSG impressed in recent years with its ability to scuttle itself in major meetings. From Laurent Blanc's 3-5-2 against Manchester City to the deflagration of Manchester United via the Barcelona rally, the Parisian team initially seemed to lose to themselves in the Champions League, crushed by the event . The qualification against Dortmund in the closed door of the Parc des Princes furnished outside with ultras in trance constitutes a mental click.

It was therefore not until a year when daily life was turned upside down for PSG to get back to the place and follow its lucky stars. The story of PSG tells of a club that is never better than its back to the wall, as if it found the light when darkness encumbered it. This Sadian pleasure explodes today in the emptiness of Lisbon, abandoned by tourists and in a competition completed in the din of silence.

It seems that these conditions push Presnel Kimpembe's partners when others have already sunk. Relieved of the physical weight of the fans and the organic pressure of the environment, Paris freed himself on March 11 on his return to Borussia and relies on his intimate convictions. The players are animated by the idea that this edition of the Champions League is for them, a force which also runs through the staff. In private since March 17 and confinement in France, Nasser Al-Khelaïfi supports all his interlocutors that Paris will win the C1. Sometimes absent from the debates, this time he struggled in France as with UEFA for the event to end.

Nine years ago, when Qatar arrived, lifting the C1 looked like a diktat. In 2020, the belief comes from the field, from the peace between Thomas Tuchel and his players, who mostly support him despite the Manchester United crash. It is a new breath that brings this uninhibited PSG towards its destiny.