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Mauricio Pochettino promised that PSG will fight to the death to win this year’s Champions League.

PSG will seek to book their place within the quarter-finals of Europe’s elite competition once they host five-time winners Barcelona in their round of 16 second-leg clash in midweek. The French champions reached the showpiece last season, only to suffer a narrow defeat to Bayern Munich, and Pochettino is decided to assist the team go one step further in May.

In a pre-match interview with the LFP Pochettino the boss said: “Clearly, it is the ambition of the club that of the win. There are a lot of other teams who want to win it, it’s not that easy. We are aware of our responsibility, and we will fight to the death to achieve it.”

PSG were dealt a difficult attract the group stage of the 2020-21 Champions League alongside Manchester United, RB Leipzig and Istanbul Basaksehir.

The French champions only picked up three points from their first three fixtures, losing reception to United and away to Leipzig either side of a 2-0 win against Basaksehir, but recovered to end top of Pool H. PSG beat Leipzig 1-0 reception before earning a powerful 3-1 victory over the Red Devils at Old Trafford and thrashing Basaksehir 5-1, with a heavyweight knockout stage encounter against Barca serving because the reward for his or her efforts.

Pochettino’s side then hammered home their European aspirations by dismantling the Blaugrana 4-1 at Camp Nou within the first leg of their last 16 tie, and can be expected to end the work at Parc des Princes on Wednesday night.

Carlo Ancelotti, Laurent Blanc and Unai Emery all did not take PSG beyond the quarter-finals of the Champions League, but Thomas Tuchel managed to buck that trend in 2019-20.

The German head coach found how to bring the simplest out of key performers like Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and Angel Di Maria as they swept aside all comers to succeed in the ultimate , but were outclassed by Bayern.

Marquinhos has thrown away theories by which Kylian Mbappe functions better for Paris Saint-Germain when Neymar is absent.

Neymar has not featured for PSG since February 10 on account of a leg injury, and Mbappe took centre stage within the Brazilian’s absence when tormenting Barcelona within the Champions League six days later.

Mbappe produced one among the performances of his career so far in netting a hat-trick within the 4-1 win for PSG at Camp Nou , but Marquinhos feels the Frenchman is even better alongside Neymar. When asked by RTL if Mbappe may be a better player without Neymar within the side, Marquinhos said: “No, we will not enter these stories.

“I see people talking, but we’ve to prevent with nonsense like that. We always want to possess the simplest players with us. If you ask Kylian, i feel he also prefers when he has Ney next to him. Kylian was there and did the proper thing [against Barcelona], but other players also had importance during this game.”

“When the team is playing well, that’s when the individuals begin even more. “It (the performance against Barca) boosted his confidence. Scoring three goals at Camp Nou are some things vital for him and for us. Everyone has understood what he’s capable of. We are here to assist him the maximum amount as possible. he’s a pacesetter on the sector together with his personality and his qualities. He had an exceptional match.”

The Brazil superstar was extremely low after learning an injury against Caen within the Coupe de France, taking to Instagram to invite protection from opposition players. He has worked hard on his fitness over the past month and PSG coach Mauricio Pochettino said on Friday that there was an opportunity Neymar might be within the squad to face Barcelona on Wednesday.

Neymar is keen to face his former club, and an area on the bench might be the likely option provided the 29-year-old trains overflow subsequent few days.

Paris Saint-Germain sporting director Leonardo declared war on Premier League and Bundesliga clubs last week for poaching PSG’s young players.

Bayern Munich came certain particular criticism because the Brazilian cited the case of Tanguy Nianzou, who featured regularly for PSG last term only to depart on a free transfer to hitch up with the side who defeated the Parisians in August’s Champions League final, courtesy of a goal by one among their own academy graduates in Kingsley Coman.

Since moving to Germany, Nianzou, who was referred to as Kouassi in France, has played only 21 minutes, albeit largely due to physical problems. Referencing German and English clubs specifically, Leonardo told France Bleu: “They ask the families of the young players, they struggle to convince them by making grand promises once they are only 15. It should be forbidden!”

Brexit has essentially solved the difficulty of Premier League clubs taking over players so young, but the issues presented by Bundesliga sides remain.

PSG have certainly lost a plethora of players to Germany, with Dan-Axel Zagadou (Borussia Dortmund), Moussa Diaby (Bayer Leverkusen) and Christopher Nkunku (RB Leipzig) three of their other more notable names to form the move in recent years.

“The problem is that they think elsewhere it’s paradise,” Leonardo said. “We say: ‘PSG have lost a youngster’ but sometimes i feel that it’s not PSG that loses, but the children who lose PSG. There are many young players who want to return back.”

In truth, first-team opportunities for PSG’s current academy players are still limited. Diaby, Nkunku and Nianzou had a couple of chances in Paris, but none had guarantees of continued involvement, even after bright displays within the varsity .
Obviously, Leonardo would be advised to urge his own house so as before pointing fingers at others but he did make a crucial point about the movement of young players within the game today and his anger is unlikely to subside any time soon.

Bild are now reporting that PSG’s 17-year-old centre-back Soumaila Coulibaly will join Dortmund within the summer.

In the past few weeks it has been quite obvious that Neymar was trying to express his true thoughts and feelings about being at PSG. All of these incidents sturred up some rumours about a possible gigantic and shocking transfer to Real Madrid.

Judging by how the football transfer world works nowadays, we can’t say this option is impossible, especially knowing that the Spanish giants will probably go on a huge shopping frenzy on the end of this season.

PSG are visiting Lille this weekend with a significantly weakened team. Kylian Mbappe and Thiago Motta are injured, while Dani Alves is suspended after receiving a red card in the match played against Lyon. If you’d like to predict this game’s outcome, make sure to visit https://www.unibet.com.au/betting.

The young French superstar believes his side can only improve after they made a great start in the Uefa Champions League.

 

PSG were planning a comfortable win at Anderlecht on Wednesday, according to Kylian, and they managed to achieve much more than that with a 4 – 0 UCL success.

Les Parisiens destroyed Celtic with 5 – 0, and comfortably beaten the German giant Bayern Munich in their previous games, before Anderlecht became the last victim of Mbappe, Neymar and Cavani’s dark magic.

All three wizards netted in Belgium, with Kylian scoring a record breaking 8th goal as a teenager, giving him many reasons to head back to Paris happy.

“Not every game can be like the one against Bayern. We came here to win well and that’s what we did. We’re happy and go home with the three points. We can always do better and there are lots of games to come, but we need to be able to control our weaker moments as well as our stronger moments.

We haven’t been made to pay yet, but we need to be as vigilant as we can. We need to be professional and win games. It’s extremely satisfying to have kept three clean sheets in the Champions League so far. I intend to keep that going for as long as possible, but I realise that things will get increasingly difficult as we progress in the competition.” – said Mbappe.

PSG are currently 3 points ahead of Bayern in Group B, and have 3 matches remaining in the group stage.