Kingsley Coman had opened the ball earlier in the evening. With a smile on his face, the Bayern winger appeared relaxed on the eve of the meeting against Paris, his former club. He then gave way to Julian Nagelsmann, his coach, whose speech left a little less room for relaxation.
A player like Messi seems unstoppable over a full game. How do you plan to go about it?
JULIAN NAGELSMANN. As you said, stopping Messi is impossible to do for 90 minutes and it’s never done individually. We have to do it as a team. We must reduce the number of passes that can find him as much as possible, but we must also be focused on the other players who have a lot of qualities. We should not focus only on the big names of this team but also the others. And above all, we must not make ourselves too small. But it’s not just a concern of our own, I’m sure Christophe Galtier is also thinking about how to stop our players.
Kylian Mbappé may play this Tuesday. Is it an advantage for Bayern that he, and perhaps Messi who was rested this weekend, are not in top form?
Ask me again tomorrow night, I’ll tell you more. Messi has enough experience to know when not to train and blow through some pain. It’s the same for Kylian. He trained yesterday and today. He may come back later in the game. But my job is to prepare my team to play PSG with or without Mbappé and Messi.
Have you decided whether you will play with a three or four element defense?
Yes, we decided. As I said recently, it’s about putting the players in the best possible position and finding the weak points of our opponent. Afterwards, one can be good or bad in any system.
How do you approach this match against this struggling PSG?
We are not focusing on the situation of PSG in Ligue 1 or in the Cup. The Champions League is another competition where PSG intend to play a role. We focus on us before focusing on them. I just know that neither team will try something completely new in this game. Everyone will try to play their own game by taking a favorable step towards the return match.
Why were you so sure that Mbappé would be present tomorrow? And what does his presence change in a meeting like this?
I wasn’t 100% sure of myself. The question was: would I prepare my team differently depending on the presence of Kylian Mbappé? I’m not a doctor, I didn’t know if he would be there. I just said I was assuming he could play. If that’s the case, we’ll try to have control over him. Maybe he will only play half time. We are ready for different scenarios. But we are not going to change all our plans depending on Mbappé.
How do you rate Jan Sommer’s first month in goal?
It’s not an easy situation for him. He must replace Manuel (Neuer, injured) which is extraordinary. He does it very intelligently, he has shown a lot of security.
Isn’t it taking risks to want to win and leave space for the Parisian attackers?
If we put our game plan in place, Messi and Neymar will not have many opportunities to show themselves. It will be played on possession and control of the ball. We play to win like PSG does. But we want to do it with a lot of control, so as not to leave too much space for Neymar and Messi. They are very dangerous when they have space. And if we don’t impose our game, they will have space.
A Czech player, Jakub Jankto, came out today. He is one of the few to have done so in activity. What do you think ?
It’s very brave, but it’s sad to think that it’s brave. It should be normal. We are talking about people who have had a lot of pressure in their careers, it is not easy. When we look at the world, we see that it is very colorful, made up of different beliefs, religions and sexual orientations. We are in Paris in a city that brings together this mixture. It’s brave, but I’m glad he did it. I hope her life is better now.