INTERVIEW
The state of Kylian Mbappé's ankle is at the center of the discussions. Injured in the Coupe de France final against Saint-Etienne (1-0), the world champion is very uncertain for the Champions League and will not play against Lyon next Friday in the Coupe de la Ligue final. But OL coach Rudi Garcia assures us that his "absence is not enough to weaken" PSG.
"We hope that Kylian Mbappé will come back as soon as possible, at least for the Champions League because we are behind all the French clubs. If it is against us it will be against us, but if there is no Mbappé he there is Neymar, if there is no Neymar there is Icardi, if there is no Icardi there is Di Maria. This Paris Saint-Germain team has a lot of very good players, the absence of a player is not enough to weaken it ", estimated Rudi Garcia, Sunday evening on Europe 1 Sport.
"We are outsiders, but we hope to thwart the predictions"
The Lyon coach also said he wanted to "do everything" to win against PSG, but also on Friday August 7 against Juventus Turin in the round of 16 second leg of the Champions League (Lyon 1-0 victory in the first leg). "We have two finals to play: one that will hopefully open the doors to the Europa League for us, and allow OL to win a trophy. OL haven't won a trophy for too long. . Then there will be a final which would open the doors to the Final Eight and the quarter-finals of the Champions League, "hoped the former coach of Lille, AS Roma and OM.
"We prepare for it, on the two matches we are underdogs but we hope to defeat the predictions and come out on top. Even if we don't need to win the matches in both cases, we need useful results to win the Coupe de the League and move into the quarterfinals of the Champions League, "he assured.
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"It is difficult to assess how far we can go in terms of intensity"
Rudi Garcia also returned to the special preparation conditions for the Lyonnais. Indeed, OL have not replayed since the end of competition in France in March, due to the coronavirus. Difficult, in this context, to know the state of form of the "Gones". "Getting ready for two months to play two cleaver matches is special and has not happened to anyone. We are in the unknown, we tried to be inventive and we will see if we were right about our preparation", judged Rudi Garcia.
"What we have trouble assessing is how far we can go in terms of intensity in a recovery match. For Paris it will be the second game, for us the first. There is this unknown. which we do not control all the parameters. "