After ten days of work, place for the first test for the PSG version Christophe Galtier. See you this Friday afternoon (5 p.m.) at Camp des Loges on the training grounds of the French champions against Quevilly-Rouen-Métropole (QRM), Ligue 2 club trained by Olivier Echouafni, former women’s coach of PSG. A meeting without an audience or media, and simply broadcast on the club’s channels (PSG TV Premium and the Twitch channel). The stakes are limited, but the first lessons could be learned from this first outing of the year for the new Parisian coach.
Since Monday July 11, Galtier has had his entire squad with the return of internationals like Kylian Mbappé, Presnel Kimpembe, Danilo Pereira, Nuno Mendes, Achraf Hakimi or Pablo Sarabia. Logically, these latest arrivals should not play this friendly match. Potential recruits like defender Milan Skriniar or forwards Gianluca Scamacca and Hugo Ekitike are not there yet. But Galtier’s staff has been leading more than thirty other players since July 4, from stars Neymar and Lionel Messi to young people from the training center, such as Djeidi Gassama or Warren Zaire-Emery.
PODCAST. Christophe Galtier: from OM to PSG, the journey of a leader
First test for three-man defense
The technician will thus have plenty of time to set up the preferred system for the season with a line of three defenders, as announced during his introductory press conference. Especially since Marquinhos or Sergio Ramos have already been training for ten days. Arrived at the beginning of last week, the Portuguese rookie Vitinha will also experience his first minutes of play in his new jersey.
Players like Rafinha or Abdou Diallo, who will not tour Japan, could still be used during this match. Opposite, QRM is more advanced in its preparation since the Normans will play their second pre-season friendly match, after a defeat against Le Havre (1-2), Saturday July 9.
At the end of this meeting, the Parisians will spend one last night in Paris before a long trip between Japan and Israel. From Saturday, the delegation will fly to Tokyo, where a ten-day summer tour awaits, consisting of three friendly matches and various commercial operations with local sponsors. PSG will leave the Land of the Rising Sun on July 27 to reach Tel Aviv, where the Champions Trophy will be contested there, against Antoine Kombouaré’s FC Nantes.