There is Bayern Munich and the others. At a time when PSG, opposed to Manchester United this Tuesday evening, is retrying its chance to win the first Champions League in its history, Thomas Tuchel’s team has as many chances as its other competitors, except the German ogre . The latter remains the favorite to succeed himself if photography stops today. All the top names suffer, in different proportions, from Liverpool to Real Madrid, from Inter Milan to Manchester City, with a special mention in Barcelona, completely anemic, with a demotivated Messi.
Except that the Cup with big ears is not won in October or December, not in the group stage in any case. And many of the dying of the first half of the program relive when knockout games come. It is impossible to nominate candidates other than natural and historical ones at this stage, an uncertainty reinforced and accentuated by the pandemic that makes everyone modest, including in football.
Besides that nobody knows if the championships will be able to go to the end – that of the Czech Republic stops until November -, the calendars, the bodies and the heads are totally distorted by the health crisis which forces a new season. Teams will be disrupted by the Covid (isolation of positives and contact cases), some teams have almost two exercises in a row with a very brief cut in the middle of an overloaded international menu because of the catching up of friendly matches of selections suspended for containment. In short, the Champions League is inherently unpredictable and the coronavirus adds its grain of madness to this event full of twists and turns. It’s more open than ever.
One of the best teams in Europe
With its first final in August in Lisbon, lost to Bayern, PSG bought new or additional credibility, indicating that they could rise to the level of the event. Thomas Tuchel, who already works for a club where the pressure of European Cup results is often suffocating, pushes back the question of the new status. “Whether I answer yes or no, it does not change anything, slips the coach. I no longer think about the final, the last Champions League. It was extraordinary but it is in the past. We still have to show, prove. It is my challenge to create a united and compact team in this new competition. We don’t have time to waste wondering if we are stronger or weaker. “
The quality of its recruitment, interesting on paper, will give part of the solution as Paris qualified for the semi-final thanks to a goal from Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting and without Marco Verratti, who did not could play the Final 8 in the skin of the usual holder. With two outings against Manchester United and against Leipzig as an appetizer, Neymar’s training will at least provide information on its consistency until December.
After, in 2021, the unbreathable matches will return and normally, Paris is no longer afraid of them, the lock having been jumped with the qualification against Dortmund. Without injury or suspension, PSG retains one of the best teams in Europe. He proved it, he would be wrong not to start over.
Article original de: www.leparisien.fr
