After the demonstration, confirmation and qualification?
PSG struck a big blow in Barcelona three weeks ago, winning 4-1 in the round of 16 first leg of the Champions League.
And this with a great Marco Verratti in the middle, a huge Kylian Mbappé and above all a great collective strength.
An “almost perfect” match, said the little Owl, very comfortable in his new role, higher up on the field, and “a deserved victory”.
All that remains is to finish the work and validate this ticket for the quarter-finals of C1, this Wednesday (9 p.m.), at the Parc des Princes.
A special match, special device, with Mauricio Pochettino who decided to go green, he who is however not fond of it.
“We made this decision with the players,” he explains.
It was the need of the moment, what we felt, that the team needed to be together. ”
Life without Neymar
Together, but not all together.
Paris will indeed again be deprived of Neymar Jr, as on the first leg, as since his adductor injury on February 10 in Caen, in the Coupe de France (1-0 victory).
"The voices of the Lord are impenetrable", plague the former Barcelonan on social networks, he who was keen to play against his former team.
However, hope has grown in recent days, with the return of the 29-year-old Brazilian international to training and the prospect of an entry late in the game.
Missed.
“Neymar cannot be in the best conditions to play.
It is not a decision, it is a reality ”, notes Pochettino,“ sad ”for his superstar but already turned towards the future.
"The idea is to be in shape to help PSG, not only in C1, but in the cup and in the league," swears the Argentinian.
"
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Good news ?
Package in Catalonia, Angel Di Maria is fit.
He made his return to Brest last weekend (3-0 victory).
The trend is optimism also for Alessandro Florenzi.
Besides "Ney", Juan Bernat (knee) and Moise Kean (covid-19) could therefore be the only two absent from Paris, while Barça will be deprived of Gerard Pique, Ronald Araujo and always Philippe Coutinho, Ansu Fati and Sergi Roberto.
For Paris, however, there is no question of considering the qualification as already acquired.
Admittedly, the advantage gained in the first leg is substantial, but the Reds and Blues promise to display “the same desire as in the first leg, or even more”, as Keylor Navas insists, triple winner of the C1 with the Real.
“We must use this margin but we will not make less effort than at Camp Nou, adds the Costa Rican.
It's clear: we want to win.
And so you have to attack and score goals. "
Same story with his coach, who believes that he will have to be "at least as focused as in Barcelona, attack and win".
As often in this kind of case, "the start of the match will be essential," swears the 49-year-old Argentinian technician, back in Paris since early 2021, 17 years after his stint as player and captain.
"Everything is possible"
Ronald koeman
A start that his Barcelona counterpart obviously hopes for the advantage of the Blaugrana, refreshed after their comeback against Sevilla in the Copa del Rey (0-2 defeat in the first leg, 3-0 victory in the return).
“The cup game gave us a lot of confidence.
But we can not compare a 2-0 defeat on the outside in the first leg with a 4-1 defeat at home ", he notes, before stressing that" nothing is impossible ".
And to add: “To succeed in a comeback in Paris, we need all our players at the best level.
And if Lionel Messi gives us a great match ... Everything is possible.
The start of the match will be essential.
We will have to put pressure on PSG. "
With Ousmane Dembélé, Antoine Griezmann or even Frenkie de Jong, the "Pulga" will indeed be the main asset of Barça in the midst of a storm, between finances in the red, the return of Joan Laporta to the presidency and the affair of "Barçagate".
Which Messi will perhaps live, in the event of elimination, his last European match with Barça.
At least if he left at the end of the season.
The next one, it will also be perhaps with the jersey… of the PSG on the shoulders.
Marquinhos and the "scars that remain"
Qualification objective, therefore, for a PSG who remained on three runs in the 8th of “Champions” before reaching the final for the first time in its history last summer.
Three eliminations, including that of 2017 against Barcelona.
If Pochettino does not want to hear about it ("The past is the past"), Marquinhos recognized even recently, on
RTL
, that there are "scars that remain".
A clear, clean and flawless qualification would make it possible to evacuate the ghosts of the past.
Recall that in addition to the Brazilian captain, Verratti, Layvin Kurzawa, Julian Draxler and Presnel Kimpembe were in Barcelona on this March 8, 2017 of disastrous memory for PSG lovers.
And yet, "Presko", so brilliant during the 4-0 success of the first leg on February 14, 2017, had not played.
Neymar and Rafinha were also in the game, in the opposite camp.
“There are also lessons we can keep.
It's up to us to be intelligent and to learn from our mistakes, with the things that have happened ”, continues“ Marqui ”.
There is no doubt that the young (26 years old) Parisian captain will do everything possible to avoid the pitfalls of the past by transmitting calm, confidence and serenity to his little comrades.
What his predecessor and compatriot, Thiago Silva, had failed to do in 2017… Not the only culprit.
“The key is focus.
We consider it 0-0.
That's how you have to think, ”insists Mauricio Pochettino.
There is no more…
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