Ligue 1: Messi, control of the game, Qatar… Sampaoli takes stock before OM-PSG

It's the possibility of playing against the best and raising our level, even if we only have 48 hours to prepare for this meeting. But when we play such strong players, it increases the level of the opposing team

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will have to control the ball and the losses of the ball against a very efficient team, which has very fast players and a lot of individual capacity.

It will be necessary to control the match to defend with the ball.

The importance of the matches is linked to the expectations of the supporters.

We know that the people of Marseille want to see a match played against an opponent who is from another level and shows it at each transfer window.

But we know that we have to be competitive in this match for the supporters of OM, the club, the city.

The difference with the other matches is the emotion of the supporters that gives it.

I played against him, I trained him. We know he's the best player in the world and it's very hard to control him, to control his creativity. The most important thing will be to know how to minimize their individualities thanks to our game, our control of the game. We have to make sure that Messi is far from our goal because we know that he can hurt us very badly if he is close to the goals. cages… The best way to stop a player like that is to control the game. (…) I am not going to teach anyone anything by saying that he is always a cut above the other players who could be described as normal. I did not live in a favorable context to take advantage of it, unfortunately, but I never changed my mind about it. He has a very long career at the top, which proves that itis an eternal player. He did it thanks to his professionalism and his involvement. It will be a pleasure to see him on the pitch again but it's always complicated to face a player like him because we know that he can hurt you at any time… (…) I have not spoken with him since (the 2018 World Cup).

No, I cannot consider that the title is promised to PSG.

Of course, they show great consistency and it's a team built for that.

But there are a lot of things that make us think we can do something about them.

Things can happen during the game.

It is up to us to take advantage of our opportunities in this meeting.

Of course, we respect their qualities but we also have this hope like the supporters who think that we have possibilities and we want to take advantage of them.

I do not worry about that, I am only interested in the fact of preparing my team.

We have very little time to do it after Lazio.

So we don't have time to deal with memories, only with the present.

(…) I haven't spoken with them since.

I just saw Nicolás Otamendi in a friendly match against Benfica.

We haven't met until now.

PSG are a great team, with great players, so it makes sense that they need time.

Among the players who were present yesterday (against Lazio), only Cengiz Under has a little embarrassment. We will see tomorrow (Saturday), we hope that he will be restored for the match.

If PSG manages to skip our pressing, we will be in difficulty, because it's a team that has a lot of precision and speed. It will be necessary to ensure that the attackers touch few balls and do not manage to place their rapid attacks. Yesterday, we decided that we had to deprive Ciro Immobile and the attackers of the ball and that they get as close as possible to Pau Lopez's cage. We managed to do it through our game, with ball control. Afterwards, we will have to be attentive to the development of the match, with certain situations that can create emotions that would take us out of our game plan. However, if we get out of our ideas against a team like this, so fast, too. strong, we will certainly suffer…

Playing against a space player like him is always complicated against him.

Even if we have the ball, any loss of the ball can be fatal because he expects that, he is always there.

But as I said before, football is very important, politically, economically… You can see countries buying clubs and the best players.

It makes things even more complicated for the other teams, who don't have these possibilities.

We are talking about Mbappé, but there is also Messi, Neymar, Angel Di Maria… Only a country can bring together all these players in a team.

Mbappé or the other players I have just mentioned can change the course of a match in a single action…