OM and Bayern having thwarted their plans in the cups, the Parisians only have the championship.
After the reception of Rennes this Sunday (5:05 p.m.), during the 28th day of Ligue 1, they will still have a dozen matches to play (Lyon, Nice, Lens, Angers, Lorient, Troyes, Ajaccio, Auxerre, Strasbourg, Clermont ) before turning to a summer that we imagine to be eventful.
Long end of the season in perspective… A habit for Paris, eliminated in C1 five times over the last seven seasons in the knockout stages of the Champions League.
PSG, however, have several challenges and objectives between now and the end of the campaign, at club, team and player level.
To discover
Calendar and results Ligue 1
League 1 standings
Seize the title of champion
This is obviously the first issue at the end of the season: the title of champion of France.
“
We must not minimize the fact of being champion of France.
You (the journalists) are sending the message that, ultimately, this headline is easy.
No, it's not easy.
Winning is not normal.
Winning is difficult.
It will be necessary to fight until the end, I am intimately convinced of it
“, Hammered Galtier before the success in Brest (1-2) last week.
The ideal, however, would be to avoid getting scared.
With 10 points ahead of the Marseille dolphin before the 28th day (the ranking here), things are off to a good start.
Still have to do it.
If so, it would be the ninth title since the beginning of the Qatari era but above all the 11th in the history of the club, which would represent a national record.
So far, Paris-SG shares the top of the pyramid with AS Saint-Etienne (10 titles), ahead of OM (9), Nantes, Monaco (8) and Lyon (7).
Read alsoLigue 1: "There is no reason to whistle our players, they gave the maximum in C1", insists Galtier before PSG-Rennes
“
Until proof to the contrary, we are not champions.
Certainly, we have points in advance.
But, in addition to the international matches to come, we will face teams who are fighting for European places and we have a very small squad.
If we consider, my players or myself, that it is done, it will be a great disappointment.
(…) The only motivation we must have is to be champion of France
”, launched the Parisian coach on Friday, he who was champion of France at the head of Lille in 2021. One of the three titles to have escaped Paris since 2011, after 2012 (Montpellier) and 2017 (Monaco).
Note that Marco Verratti is already the most successful player in the history of the L1 (8).
The hunt for records and individual honors
In addition to the L1 crowning record mentioned earlier, PSG can also aim for a handful of records to spice up its end of the season.
And this even if Galtier affirms it, “
the only objective that I have and that everyone has at the club, the only obsession, it is the title of champion of France.
However, there is no harm in giving yourself small bonuses.
It can also help push troops.
For the smallest number of defeats in L1 (2 in 2015-16) or goals conceded (19 in 2015-16), it is already no longer possible (3 defeats and 26 goals conceded after the 27th game).
It will be complicated – if not impossible – to find the number of goals scored (108 in 2017-18, against 68 currently).
By achieving an almost faultless course in their last 11 L1 matches, Galtier's players can however equal or beat the points record (96 in 2015-16).
They would have to win everything (99 pts) or compile ten wins and a draw (97).
Chick?
Kylian Mbappé best scorer and Leo Messi best passer?
STEPHANE MAHE / REUTERS
On an individual level, Kylian Mbappé will aim to win a fourth title of best player in L1, which would be a record.
He will also try to win a fifth crown as top scorer in L1, thus equaling co-recordmen Carlos Bianchi and Jean-Pierre Papin.
He would, however, become the first to be the league's top scorer five years in a row.
Said Bianchi and Papin did it "
only
" four times in a row.
Before the day, and with 19 goals, "KM" shared the lead in the standings with Lille's Jonathan David, ahead of Alexandre Lacazette, Wissam Ben Yedder and Folarin Balogun (16 goals).
Lionel Messi is currently leading in assists (13), ahead of Neymar Jr (11), Jonathan Clauss (10), Florian Sotoca, Branco van den Boomen and Caio Henrique (7).
Read also“This is our maximum”: Mbappé lucid and grating after the elimination of PSG against Bayern
Give pledges of confidence to Mbappé
“
We are going to finish the season, I want to win the championship, and we will see after
”.
This is what Kylian Mbappé said after the elimination against Bayern in the middle of last week.
This will be one of the major challenges of the next few weeks in Paris: to make Mbappé want to continue the adventure in Rouge et Bleu.
Certainly, "KM" is still linked to PSG until 2024, with an option for one more season.
And as Galtier said, the Bondy crack "
has a great determination to succeed, to perform very well and to take the club as high as possible.
".
Above all, he wants to win and make history.
If he comes to the conclusion that this objective is not achievable in Paris, there is no doubt that he will want to look elsewhere.
A transfer window, it is prepared upstream, it is obvious.
This time, the sports management would do well to draw the outline even more quickly.
Mbappé is in a hurry, it's not the scoop of the year.
These players who have everything to prove
The last weeks of the season will probably change nothing in the future of boys like Gigio Donnarumma, Nuno Mendes, Achraf Hakimi, Marquinhos, Marco Verratti, Nordi Mukiele or Danilo Pereira, a priori left to stay.
For Lionel Messi, at the end of his contract and whose future is still uncertain, the decision will not depend on the next matches.
Others have every interest in showing themselves to their advantage by the end of the 2022-23 campaign, like Hugo Ekitike, who has not (yet?) shown himself worthy of the amount of the call option that PSG will pay out this summer (€36m?).
To see if Vitinha, very good at the start of the season and less thereafter, is part of this category.
Fabian Ruiz, Juan Bernat, Renato Sanches, Carlos Soler and Sergio Ramos are in the balance.
After having squatted for a long time
infirmary in 2021-22, the latter manages to chain the matches, even if he is forfeited this Sunday.
The ex-captain of Real has a substantial salary and his contract is about to expire.
Sergio Ramos at PSG, stop or again?
STEPHANE MAHE / REUTERS
And of course, there are the titis.
Warren Zaire-Emery and El Chadaille Bitshiabu are regularly called up to play with the first team.
Others are stamping with impatience (Gharbi, Housni…).
A little older (20 years old) and experienced (42 pro matches, including 28 with Bordeaux in 2021-22), Timothée Pembélé may also have the opportunity to prove that he has his place at the Parc des Princes.
With the glitches of Mukiele and Hakimi, still out this Sunday, he has a boulevard.
Read alsoPSG: vagueness around Lionel Messi, who left training prematurely last Tuesday
Make the fans smile
It has been said and repeated, the patience of Parisian supporters has been put to the test for many years.
Winning the Champions League is not a given.
Being in a position to lift it is.
By being at the very least serious, or even by rediscovering a little of the magic seen at the start of the season, Kylian Mbappé and company would give a little smile to their fans, who will however wait for the off-season to judge a potential change. of software at Paris Saint-Germain.
To see what will be the welcome that will be reserved for the players this Sunday, against Rennes, first match at the Parc des Princes since the elimination in the Champions League against FC Bayern… Rumors concerning Messi and his potential sulk at the
