The most exciting French championship for four years enters the final sprint.
Paris dreamed of a faultless one, twelve out of twelve so far started successfully, with victories in Dijon (4-0) and Bordeaux (1-0).
The pact, "an obligation" even according to Presnel Kimpembe, is respected to the letter.
Next episode during the weekend of March 13-14 with the reception in Nantes at 9 p.m., a few hours after Monaco-Lille.
This is the first of the direct confrontations.
The Mastiffs will then move to Paris and Lyon.
Three meetings against direct opponents and three trips.
Lyon also has three more shocks with the podium while Paris and Monaco have only Lille and Lyon to face.
"My theory is that this is played out in direct confrontations," maintains Alain Perrin, French champion with OL in 2008. As there are still quite a few days in the championship, each team will take a small misstep.
It may just be a draw but therefore two points less.
Hence the importance of summits, because these matches can reverse positions in the event of victory.
"
"The tauliers take matters into their own hands"
According to this principle, Paris is perhaps the best placed formation.
But the former Lyon coach tempers.
“Yes, Lille has the most unfavorable calendar.
But it's the team that is first and ahead so it balances out.
Fortunately for Pochettino, his management will benefit from the marrow of its workforce.
“What I noticed the year of the title with Lyon in 2008, adds Alain Perrin, is that in the final sprint, the coach has nothing more to do.
When we have real competitors, the tauliers take matters into their own hands.
We just have to support the team and it becomes easy.
Paris is capable of winning the last ten games.
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But nothing is easy.
Because “there is still the Champions League.
As luck would have it, the Parisians passed through after Barça against Monaco, underlines Perrin.
There is going to be a quarter-final and that will penalize them in the race for the title.
They don't have that big of a reserve in the workforce.
The typical team cannot win the last ten games and also play the Champions League.
Either there will be injuries and therefore an immediate handicap, or it will take a rotation and we are less sure that the substitutes win the matches.
“In Bordeaux, it happened.
Barely but passed anyway.
"Neymar and Mbappé together, in 60 minutes ..."
To launch the assault, Paris will recover in the next ten days Neymar, Angel Di Maria, Marco Verratti and Moise Kean.
The first totally changes the scenery.
“Neymar and Mbappé together, in 60 minutes, can settle all Ligue 1 matches. But Neymar is coming back from injury.
There will be some good and some not so good.
It will have freshness but it will not be ready immediately so it will have to be spared ”, which supposes its absence during certain L 1 matches which may be closed or difficult.
Paris will notably go to Strasbourg, which has just hooked Lille (1-1) and pinned Monaco (1-0).
After Nantes, the obstacles will come quickly with the reception of Lille and the trip to Lyon in a 30th and 31st day decisive sequence.
Will we then see more clearly for Pochettino and his family?
Still no, according to the 2008 champion coach of France. “From one week to the next, the teams' ratings change.
Before this day, everyone saw Monaco, spoke only of Monaco.
Now it would be over after his defeat in Strasbourg, concludes Perrin.
The end is going to be magnificent.
We will have to wait more than the next three days.
Paris is above in terms of individual qualities.
Lille are ahead in the standings and not obliged to win all of their direct confrontations.
It changes the game.
»The outcome is scheduled for May 23 in Brest.
