The dream begins in Lisbon, the city of the world it seems, and that is exactly what PSG is looking for. He wants to wow the planet, offer himself a share of glory and win the first Champions League in its history, the first in the world after, completed in a new format: you win, you live; you lose, you go home.
“Nobody is going to die,” Leonardo, the sporting director, said last week in the event of failure. Obviously, we must beware of this terminology transposed to the sporting thing, especially in a “covidized” era, but there will be a taste of a buffet stop if Paris leaves the competition on Wednesday.
A favorable picture
Paris has a goal, an objective, to oust Atalanta Bergamo, surprise guest of this final eight-way tournament in Portugal. In order to continue their joyous adventure against the winner of the Atlético de Madrid-RB Leipzig match, two other teams just as circumventable as the Italian formation.
The capital club, used to Real Madrid, Barcelona or Manchester City when the altitude rises, can this time breathe on its way to the summits. Oxygen will not be lacking, at least on paper, with an affordable draw, names within the reach of a Paris which has with Neymar and Mbappé still two of the five best players in the universe in the race in this event. Cristiano Ronaldo is already on vacation to perfect his abs. He remains Messi, the greatest.
In the meantime, it is in the country of the language of Pessoa that the Brazilian star's PSG is invited to dominate this Europe of eight, six of which have never won the Champions League.
Determined Neymar
For the first time since he signed in France three years ago, the Parisian club, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this Wednesday, will play a quarter-final with Neymar, bought for that, when the football rocks, when the genius foils all tactics, when the ball turns into artistic instinct, his own.
Despite the parenthesis of four months without playing - all the other competitors in the running were able to go to the end of their respective championships -, the crack Auriverde seems in good shape and particularly determined to finally give the City of Light the rays of its spherical knowledge. If Neymar is a sun then it will dart! Deprived of his best Parisian friend on the lawns, a sublime accomplice named Kylian Mbappé, number 10 embodies the driving force of this PSG decided to move from words to deeds.
A united group
Because they believe in it, because they love each other even if they do not share everything together, because confinement was suitable for intimate effusions, Thomas Tuchel's players made a promise as secret as it is viral: to win this historic Champions League. Normally, we will continue to talk about this edition in a hundred years, unless the coronavirus imposes itself as a series over several seasons, which would not suit anyone or any sector, football like other parts of the performing arts.
This pact of young wolves with long teeth that scratch the grass must now find its translation in the empty setting of the Luz stadium. Who will become that of the light in the event of qualification, but that of the "lose" in the event of elimination. Yes, the Parisians are hungry, determined to reconnect with year I of their emotions when the PSG version Qatar with Carlo Ancelotti and Laurent Blanc managed without really blinking until the quarter before breaking their teeth and the neck afterwards.
PSG Express
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Here they are again at this stage but like Lyon, finally, which will challenge Manchester City this Saturday. This time, the Parisian gold diggers have to take another step, a small step for football, a giant step at their level: see the last square which is often magical.
Mbappé ready to pounce
Obviously, it is not because Atalanta Bergamo does not shine with its millions and its surname that it does not follow the contours of the surprise team par excellence, like Ajax Amsterdam in 2019 , brilliant semi-finalist stopped in extremis at the gates of the final by Tottenham, another intruder. Italians play all over the place, offering the whirlwind of life that would take away any Jules and Jim.
There will be neither Marco Verratti, arrived this Tuesday in Lisbon but injured in the calves, to oppose this rain of play and only Kylian Mbappé for a few minutes. With a healed ankle but badly banged up on July 24, the world champion could not start the game. The young man in a hurry proved in Russia that the world did not wait, in any case could not wait for him with his aerial soles. But seeing him against Bergamo would almost sound like bad news: there would be something to correct, a score to reverse, a thread to reconnect.
The easiest way would still be to keep him warm, for August 18, a semi-final night. It will be as beautiful as a new penny and that would mean that Paris is progressing in its conquest. Punctual at the rendezvous, "pact" like never before. Yes, it's time to wrap up the Parisian dream.
