The PSG social elevator for European summits has stuck in the round of 16 for three years, with two spectacular eliminations against Barcelona (2017) and Manchester United (2019) and another without flavor against Real Madrid (2018). The idea, this Wednesday evening, is not to create a new category in terms of fiasco nor to feed those existing during the reception of Dortmund behind closed doors, confinement requires.
But where everyone in the Champions League faces an opponent, Paris is fighting simultaneously against its ghosts and several fires to extinguish in a contagion of annoyances and an epidemic of bad luck that no mask dammers. If not that of Zorro, but Neymar is not slender enough at the moment to hide, even in the intervals, and Kylian Mbappé too diminished to play the saviors.
VIDEO. PSG-Dortmund behind closed doors: another (another) challenge for the club
Eliminating Dortmund was therefore not safe for this Paris and at the halfway point, it is rather outside than inside with this defeat (2-1) in the first leg. It is now necessary to work on it in an anonymous Parc des Princes, without audiences, emptied of the salt of sport - communion, sharing, emotion, here and now in a stadium transformed into a crater of pleasure. Use it with players still far from their state of form, like Neymar, Edinson Cavani or Thiago Silva, who returns after 16 days of absence.
Finally show solidarity
The captain is not 100% but he will still play, a decision taken especially to install Marquinhos in the middle. This astounding choice by Thomas Tuchel also tells of what is still lacking in Paris, a composure when approaching major events. Paris is not helped by a series of circumstances as unfavorable as improbable but also has this delicate art of putting handicaps on its own. It is a club that seems to hunt as much as to fuel the curse that pursues it.
The tenure of the Brazilian is more a DIY than a thoughtful reflection. She also says that other solutions have not been explored. When the hard knocks come, this is the time to ask yourself what is the point of Leandro Paredes or Julian Draxler, unable to replace a suspended Marco Verratti, emphasizing a little more the holes in this team: a number 6 and a hard-working torchbearer.
Maybe get started without Kylian Mbappé, whose presence at kick-off will be decided this Wednesday at midday. His sore throat follows the headache of a club that breaks up when the Champions League returns, his self-proclaimed design when Qatar took over PSG in 2011.
PSG Express
The essential newsletter for Parisian supportersI'm registering
Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to allow you to receive our news and commercial offers. Find out more
“This match is really complicated, develops Thomas Tuchel at the microphone of RMC while laughing. Usually, everything happens during games like Neymar's injury, the remount or the VAR. Now everything happens before. Maybe luck will turn and we will have a quiet game. That may be what will happen and allow us to win. This remains the challenge. The atmosphere will be weird but we will give everything. It is an evening and even a time to show solidarity. The world changes. What about PSG?
VIDEO. PSG-Dortmund in camera: "A disadvantage, but not an excuse"