Paris (AFP)
The triumph in the first leg in Barcelona (4-1) made PSG the overwhelming favorite for qualification before the knockout stages of the Champions League on Wednesday (9 p.m.), but the Parisian club, without Neymar, still has to overcome the persistent trauma of the "remountada".
Paradoxically, it is in the north of the Pyrenees that the hypothesis of a new staggering scenario causes the most cause.
"You are getting us drunk with the comeback," Paris defender Abdou Diallo told reporters on Saturday, shortly after coach Mauricio Pochettino spoke of the "terrible panic" around the club.
However, that night, PSG beat Brest (3-0) in the Coupe de France, delivering a controlled performance that rather encourages optimism.
In Catalonia, the side Jordi Alba admitted for his part that a reversal of the situation promised to be "very complicated".
It is true that no team has qualified in C1 after losing the first leg at home by three goals.
"It will be necessary to be efficient, realistic, but we will try!", Promised the technician blaugrana Ronald Koeman.
However, it does not take much for the Parisians to remember the time when they fell into the irrational, four years ago, at the same stage of the competition, against the same opponent.
Although a 4-0 winner in the first leg, PSG sank at Camp Nou (6-1).
What to keep the certainty that it is not necessary to be too sure of oneself before a big European meeting.
- Paris without Neymar -
So, inevitably, the atmosphere is tinged with doubts, enough to push Pochettino to introduce, for the first time since his arrival in January, a greening on the eve of the match.
Today, Paris has all the weapons to finish the job facing the wounded beast from Barcelona.
Kylian Mbappé showed him the way: author of a hat-trick in the first leg, he suddenly erased the questions that surrounded him, linked to his effectiveness in C1.
Since then, the star striker has followed with two braces in three matches, forgetting that his accomplice Neymar was in the infirmary.
Precisely, the Brazilian superstar, forfeit in the first leg due to an injury to the long left adductor, will still be missing.
But PSG will not be far from its typical team either, thanks to the return of Angel di Maria and Marco Verratti, author in Brest of two assists.
"We have to win to qualify, that will be our approach from the first minute. The start of the game is going to be very important for both teams," said Pochettino.
The start will be crucial, the end just as much, since this match will mark a turning point in the season of the two big names.
In Paris, a qualification would propel the club, finalist last season, alongside Bayern and Manchester City among the most serious contenders for the title, while it had shown signs of weakness during the group stage.
- Rivalry -
In Barcelona, this match can be read through the prism of Messi: a new European disappointment could push the "Pulga", at the end of the contract next summer, towards a departure.
Towards a departure ... at PSG?
Calls from the foot of Neymar, Di Maria and Leandro Paredes, in the media, fueled the fantasy of his arrival in the capital, as well as the anger in Catalonia, to the tune of: "Mind your own business! "
"He's a player who can rock any game, at any time. But it won't be up to Leo," Koeman said.
The rivalry between the two clubs, still active, gives spice to this return match, despite the river score of the first leg.
Moreover, the new president of Barça Joan Laporta, chosen Sunday by the socios, launched hostilities with a brave statement, immediately elected: "We are going to Paris, see if we can go back!"
The team coached by Koeman has already managed a "comeback", last week, against Sevilla FC in the semi-final of the Spanish Cup (0-2, 3-0 ap), in a difficult context, scored at the same moment by a search of the headquarters of the club and arrests among its leaders, former and current.
But in Paris, we have every reason to believe in the qualification ... unless the irrational comes back to haunt PSG.
© 2021 AFP