In other times, this 59th consecutive match played at closed counters at the Meinau stadium in Strasbourg would have unleashed passions. Everything was there, a sparkling PSG and a Racing Club of Strasbourg (RCSA) so stunning since the start of the season that he will soon find Europe, five years after his last appearance. But the times are no longer in the hexagonal galas for Parisians, two games to win the first champions league in their history and obsessed with this glorious perspective. So much that with a team B (and even C in certain positions, legitimately making the RCSA competitors cringe in the classification), they finished their feet in the sauerkraut, abandoning a new series on the way: after the invincibility in L1, it is the number of outdoor matches without setbacks which froze at 39, record of Europe for a long time, despite everything. “We did the necessary throughout the season and we must not trivialize our journeyrelativized the captain of an evening Warren Zaïre-Emery at the microphone of the diffusers. We did not make a bad game, we gave everything but we will have to do better on Wednesday. »»
Luis Enrique had not even tried to pretend by communicating his group of nineteen players yesterday morning: no trip to Alsace for Donnarumma, Hakimi, Marquinhos and Nuno Mendes, almost all the tauliers in the rear guard. The sign that the Spanish coach dreads (rightly) the future offensive assaults of an arsenal team stung in his pride after his failure last Tuesday (0-1). “The end of the season is strange for us because we are already champions, but these matches must prepare for other competitions”assured the technician. Asked about the sparkling form of his Italian goalkeeper in the Champions League, he recognized that a “Positive noise” Circular about an element often vilified in the past, but refused to make a special case.
This is how the Russian replacement Safonov has taken his place in the cages and that Beraldo, Lucas Hernandez and even the young Axel Tape (17 years old) took the opportunity to scrape a little playing time. Surprised several times by the talent of the Lemaréchal (what a goal!) And other Strasbourg nuggets, they will not jostle the hierarchy, and Substitutes who, except Cataclysm, will remain so until May 31, the date of the possible final in Munich against Barcelona or Inter Milan. But as we like to say in today’s football, “The group lives well”very well even, and it is one of the pillars of the remarkable success so far.
Dembélé, Info and Intox
Released twenty minutes from the end of the semi-final to go to London, the French international officially suffers from a “Muscle stretching of the hamstrings of the right thigh”. A benign injury that opens the door to all the interpretations and a learned staging of uncertainty on the PSG side. Dispected from the trip to Strasbourg, the candidate for the Ballon d’Or would probably not have played much yesterday, even in great shape. At 27, Dembélé became the “X factor” as much as the symbol of this playful and united team. No more annoyed than that by defeat (“We saw a great match”), Luis Enrique knows it: with or without “Dembouz”, the threat is not the same for the opponent.
It is therefore a safe bet that the staff of Spanish preserves the suspense until the last minute, with two possibilities to replace it at the start on Wednesday in the usual 4-3-3 of Parisians: Bradley Barcola for post, the former Lyonnais having scored yesterday his first (superb) goal since eleven games, and Gonçalo Ramos for a redistribution of roles dictated by From the Portuguese, once again unlucky yesterday at the Meinau.
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Among bookmakers, Paris is now the favorite to go to the end with a rating of 2.25 against 3 in Barcelona
Even England is charmed
Arsenal Star Bukayo Saka admitted this week on Sky Sports that PSG was “Probably the best team” that he faced this season. A team that he did not recognize after having dryly beaten (2-0) in early October in the group phase: “I know they only changed two players [Doué et Kvaratskhelia, NDLR] But see how much they have cohesion, how they move and circulate the ball. They were much better. They impressed me a lot. »» He is not the only one: for the first time undoubtedly of the QSI era, the Parisian club attracts sincerely admiring looks and devoid of considerations for the unlimited fortune of the Qataris or their tendency to the flashy.
“This PSG is ready to put behind his years of suffering in the Champions League”provides the BBC, not very suspicious of flagorneria. The legend of English football Wayne Rooney concludes that a fatalist and sincere: “This arsenal is excellent but unfortunately it seems to have come across the most exceptional team in Europe this year, and perhaps even much more. »» Among bookmakers, Paris is now the favorite to go to the end with a rating of 2.25 against 3 in Barcelona. If he keeps the same values with his eleven holders in the field, there are no more reasons to prove them wrong.
PSG-Arsenal, semi-final return of the Champions League, to live live and exclusively on Canal+ Wednesday, kick-off at 9 p.m.
