They came, they are all there.
The night of the stars begins tonight at the Parc des Princes (9 p.m.) and the good news is that you don't need a refracting telescope to observe this Milky Way, populated by the new galactics of football.
A skylight will suffice, even a small one, and it will do.
On the other hand, a good magnifying glass can not hurt in order to better enjoy the spectacle at the four corners of a lawn transformed into a Hollywood green background.
With the difference that everything these men are about to accomplish is very real.
It will be without a net, in one action, although there will always be the opportunity to catch up or correct the situation on May 4 in Manchester for the return leg.
But our friends are warned: in the quarterfinals of the Champions League, all the teams that had taken an option in the first leg ended up passing.
To better get back on its feet, PSG may have the good idea to overthrow City twice, one shot tonight, the other the next time.
You can never be too careful when it comes to stunts.
"An easy match for anyone"
For the pirouette, there are indeed people. Opposite, the Belgian Kevin de Bruyne and the Englishman Phil Foden, among others, can dream of a first European final and a destiny that changes, one at 29 years old, the other at 20 years old. But the Parisians have to oppose them the planets which align themselves for once. Mega stars Kylian Mbappé and Neymar have never each seemed so strong and so strong together, a double good news and a rare commodity for these two in their common history.
“It will not be an easy match for anyone, warns Mauricio Pochettino, PSG coach.
These players are difficult to control for 90 minutes.
There is really a lot of talent, they are one of the best teams in the world.
It is also the raison d'être of his: to become.
It failed last season in the final, it starts again in 2021 but better, still without an audience but facing an increasingly consistent adversity from Messi's Barcelona to Bayern Munich, reigning European champion.
And now, the world's best trainer, Pep Guardiola, at the head of a myriad of cracks - even if he strives to smooth their aura into a collective more impressive in himself than the names that make it up.
Read alsoFebruary 21, 2017, the day the football planet discovered Mbappé on the Manchester City lawn
Paris has long moved forward in the opposite direction because it has built itself up to the most VIP. But at the same time as it grows in the competition, it becomes a team carried by its geniuses or the opposite. It is precisely because PSG finally looks like a solidarity and character combo that the light comes from what shines, one day Mbappé, another Keylor Navas, yet another Mbappé, a Neymar Tuesday, a Mbappé Wednesday. It is possible that we made some repetitions in the sentence. “There is no point in setting up a defensive strategy against them, they are too good. I'm going to try to sleep well tonight, smiles Pep Guardiola, City architect. They are incredible, they are very high quality players. "
The exchange of courtesies between the two coaches does not hide a reality. If in the quarter-finals, the Champions League still offers itself to the doors that slam and that we push violently, the semi-finals can sometimes be more calculating when the vertigo of the final at the end burns the crampons of the artists who run towards the goal and sometimes in the vacuum of elimination. What is certain is that this Paris-City meeting is part of an essential trade: the right to dream. So it's open.