2023-12-11 09:29:00
What if, for the first time in the QSI era, Paris Saint-Germain did not advance beyond the group stage of the Champions League? As a pivotal match in Dortmund approaches, Wednesday December 13, where Luis Enrique’s men will have to ensure their qualification, the specter of early elimination is very present.
If usually the capital’s club accustoms us to health walks from September to December before everything gets tough in the spring, this 2023-2024 edition of the big-eared cup puts Mbappé and his family to the test.
Seeing Paris inherit AC Milan, semi-finalist last season, Newcastle, the nouveau riche of the Premier League, and Borussia Dortmund, accustomed to European games, we knew that this group F had everything of a death group. The least we can say is that we were not disappointed. If PSG did the job at home by collecting seven points out of nine possible, the first two trips showed great limitations.
Turn away from the stars
The slap at Saint James Park (1-4) and the defeat at San Siro, despite Paris opening the score (1-2), illustrate this difficulty for Parisians to travel well on the European scene. If we add the elimination against Bayern last March, PSG remains on three consecutive away losses. In this sense, the trip to Dortmund is quite a test for a club which has never put itself in such danger for a final day of the group stage.
READ ALSO PSG: capable of the best and the worst, the Donnarumma enigmaGiven the numerous changes made this summer, with a new project supposed to turn away from the stars – like the successive departures of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Marco Verratti –, should we accept seeing PSG go down a notch in European Cup ? If we can indeed ask for patience for this team with players still in the adaptation phase, seeing Paris Saint-Germain in the Europa League would be a stain.
For Jérôme Rothen, consultant for RMC Sport, PSG’s possible third place on Wednesday evening would not be such bad news. “Everyone said it’s the group of death. It’s a complicated group, so it’s difficult to get out of it. You’re disappointed to finish third, but it’s not a monumental failure in the sense that you have the Europa League to rebuild yourself. Is it serious today to say that PSG does not have the level to win the Champions League? »
Mbappé, major leader
If to date the capital club obviously does not have the makings of a C1 winner like Manchester City or Real Madrid, we are still talking about a team which has spent nearly 350 million euros last summer on the transfer market. PSG is thus on the podium of the teams with the most expensive transfer windows, behind Chelsea and Al-Hilal.
With the end of the limitations linked to financial fair play, Parisian leaders had carte blanche to strengthen themselves. And if the current team will undoubtedly be more mature and ready to seek the much-desired Champions League in a few years, seeing it fail again this year would be a terrible admission of failure.
Kylian Mbappé, for his part, won his case on all fronts last summer and finds himself as the great major leader he wanted to be. After five sluggish group matches on his part, he will have to prove, in Dortmund, that his requests were not whims, and that this PSG without Messi and Neymar is performing better.
We’re not going to lie to each other: seeing Paris Saint-Germain on Thursday on W9 like in the days of Mevlut Erding and Stéphane Sessègnon would be quite a curiosity for us. And without a doubt, a huge disappointment for the supporters.
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