2023-12-19 01:50:21
The smiles and pouts were undoubtedly reversed in the Paris Saint-Germain and Real Sociedad camps this Monday afternoon, at the time of the draw for the knockout stages of the Champions League.
The Parisian club, which finished second in group F, was undoubtedly in a much more complicated situation on paper than that of Real Sociedad, brilliant first in group D. In the end, Paris selected the most “affordable” team on the paper of hat 1 and, conversely, the Basque club has, without doubt, inherited the toughest draw of hat 2.
“A great team with great players”
“It is surely the most difficult draw at this stage of the competition,” reacted Jokin Aperribay, the president of Real Sociedad, to RMC Sport. But we will do our best. It’s a benchmark club. A great team with great players. There is still a lot of time before the eighth! Our team is good. We had a good Champions League campaign. »
This match will, inevitably, have a special flavor because, in addition to the few French, French-speaking or former Ligue 1 players who play in the ranks of Real (Robin Le Normand, Hamari Traoré, Mohamed-Ali Cho, etc.), Saint-Sébastien is located about twenty kilometers from the French border, in the Spanish Basque Country. “We are on the border of France,” recalled Aperribay. We have a lot of French supporters who come from Bayonne, Biarritz, Hendaye and Saint-Jean-de-Luz. »
The first leg between the two teams will take place at the Parc des Princes in February, and the return at Anoeta in March. Real Sociedad, sixth in La Liga, has not reached this stage in the Champions League for 20 years when it was eliminated by… Lyon (1-0, 1-0).
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