Paris (AFP)
The rocket Paris SG took off Wednesday during a fiery UEFA Champions League match against Real Madrid. Sunday in Lyon (21:00), with Neymar back, she will want to maintain its upward trajectory to distance one of his most serious competitors in the Championship.
Faced with the club merengue (3-0), the team of Thomas Tuchel has beaten his first big European Park Princes in nearly ten months, since his victory against Liverpool (2-1) last season. For the 6th day of L1, he will have to do so hard in a stadium where he lost three times in four visits.
OL takes pleasure in releasing banana peels on the Parisian road. In February, they had slipped (2-1) in a defeat that announced the upcoming sports accident, the humiliation against Manchester United in 8th of C1 a month later.
But today, at the end of a summer that has upset the two teams, and at the end of a pivotal week that has highlighted the strengths and weaknesses of each, Paris seems more than ever launched to conquer the irreducible capital of Gaul.
When PSG shone in front of Real and woke up the speeches of a European success yet buried under years of failures, OL missed its debut against Zénit Saint-Petersburg (1-1). On the one hand, Tuchel is praised for finding solutions without his superstars Neymar (suspended), Edinson Cavani and Kylian Mbappé (injured). On the other hand, the new tandem formed by coach Sylvinho and sports director Juninho confronts his first critics.
- Sylvinho wants "the order" -
Parisian fans dream of the promises of arrivals of midfielder Idrissa Gueye or goalkeeper Keylor Navas, while their counterparts in Lyon are still asking questions about the EUR 94 million spent this summer which, for the moment, do not compensate for the departure of executives Nabil Fekir, Tanguy Ndombele or Ferland Mendy.
Dynamics, opposite, are reflected in the ranking where the PSG, leader before the 6th day, is four points ahead of the Lyonnais who remain on three games without a win, including a draw (2-2) not glorious in Amiens last Friday .
The pressure will be more on the side of Lyon, whose hopes of playing spoilers could be a big knife in the event of defeat.
"We want to play this kind of game, we know it will be difficult," said Sylvinho, who is expecting a discipline at the height of the event: "We must better build the game and not have a team cut in half. Football is made of liberties, but with order, when you see PSG, there is madness, but also a lot of order.I hope we will make a great match.
- Without Mbappé neither Cavani nor Icardi -
In Paris too, the tactical aspect will also be very observed, because Tuchel will have to make room for the eleven victorious Real to reintegrate Neymar, while dialing with a cascade of wounded attack: the packages of Mbappé and Cavani, absent for several weeks added that of Pablo Sarabia and Icardi.
The German coach will have to find the right carburation, between rest and remobilization, to continue to advance after the beautiful evening of Wednesday which was "very demanding physically and mentally".
"It's special to play in Lyon, it was tough last year, and it will be tough again this year, I'm looking forward to a top Lyon, which is a big challenge for us," said Tuchel. guard, with Neymar, his strongest detonators in the game.
After his teammates, the "Ney" wants to launch his season. Author of a magnificent return in injury time against Strasbourg (1-0) for his first, last Saturday, the Brazilian began his return to grace after the episode of his aborted transfer to FC Barcelona that the ultras always have across throat.
Since then, he has multiplied winks on social networks to express his happiness to be in Paris. A big game against Lyon and Sylvinho - who knows him well, as a former assistant coach of Seleçao - would help him in his mission of redemption. Like the PSG, it also aims to put it into orbit.
© 2019 AFP