Champions League
Did the departure of Messi and Neymar help PSG? Paris team celebrates league title and heads for huge success
When the star duo of Neymar and Lionel Messi left PSG before the start of this season, everyone was talking about the end of the star project. However, the Parisian outfit is now looking very good and targeting four major trophies. After winning the Super Cup at the weekend, it defended its league title and the Champions League (semi-finals) and Coupe de France (final) are still in play.
When the star duo of Neymar and Lionel Messi left PSG before the start of this season, everyone was talking about the end of the star project. However, the Parisian outfit is now looking very good and targeting four major trophies. After winning the Super Cup at the weekend, it defended its league title and the Champions League (semi-finals) and Coupe de France (final) are still in play.
Will PSG win the quadruple?
Quadruple? Of course we are talking about it. It’s very motivating. It’s a way to write club history,” coach Luis Enrique let it be heard before this weekend. PSG saved a 3-3 home draw with Le Havre for late in the game. In addition, they were helped by Monaco’s 3:2 defeat to Lyon. Currently, the Parisian team has a 12-point lead at the top of Ligue 1, thanks to which they could start celebrating the title early.
Kylian Mbappé and co. have already lifted one trophy this season, namely the one for the winner of the Super Cup. Now, however, they face their biggest challenge yet. Borussia Dortmund await them in the Champions League semi-finals. In the Coupe de France, they are already in the final, where they will face Lyon on 25 May.
Should Enrique’s charges succeed in both, it would be a phenomenal achievement. All the more so as the Parisian club has been dealt one blow after another at the start of the year. For a while, it looked like the club would be looking for a while.
On top of that, PSG’s opening two league games ended in draws – Lorient and Toulouse. However, it has only lost 4 games in all competitions all season – Nice, Newcastle, AC Milan and Barcelona.
Individualism has been replaced by teamwork
Last season, PSG’s best players were clearly Mbappé (29 goals and 5 assists), Messi (16 goals and 16 assists) and Neymar (13 goals and 11 assists). They were easily seconded by Achraf Hakimi (5 goals and 3 assists), but the results were down to the three aforementioned stars.
In this league season, the Parisian team was again led by Mbappé (26 goals and 7 assists), but the list of players who supported him is much wider. Gonçalo Ramos, Vitinha, Randal Kolo Muani, Ousmane Dembélé, Achraf Hakimi, Marco Asensio, Warren Zaïre-Emery and Bradley Barcola have all contributed to these successes.
Moreover, in many cases we are talking about very young players who have a huge future ahead of them and PSG can definitely build on them in the future!
However, now the Parisian side must take that final step that they have failed to do in recent years. They have won Ligue 1 10 times out of the last 12 seasons, but never the Champions League!
Source: PSG, X, Transfermarkt