PSG prepare Champions League return

PARIS: Kylian Mbappe will face former club Monaco for the final time as a Paris Saint-Germain player on Friday, provided coach Luis Enrique selects his star player. The France captain’s relationship with the PSG boss has come under the spotlight with Mbappe discovering he is no longer assured of a place in the lineup since telling the Qatar-owned club he would leave at the end of this season.

Mbappe informed PSG in mid-February that he intended to depart when his contract expires in June, after seven years at the Parc des Princes, with Real Madrid his likely next destination. Luis Enrique responded to that by leaving the 25-year-old on the bench for their next game at Nantes, although Mbappe came on to score a penalty in a 2-0 win.

More surprisingly, Mbappe started last week’s home meeting with Rennes and wore the captain’s armband in the absence of Marquinhos, but was substituted on 65 minutes. Trailing 1-0 at the time, PSG came back to draw thanks to a penalty won and converted by his replacement, Goncalo Ramos.

PSG’s all-time top scorer with 244 goals, Mbappe has rarely started on the bench in 292 appearances since signing from Monaco in 2017. He has occasionally been substituted earlier than was the case last weekend, but always either due to injury or with PSG already winning. “It’s very simple. Sooner or later, when it happens, we are going to have to get used to playing without Kylian,” Luis Enrique said when asked to explain why he had taken Mbappe off. “When I want to play him I will do so, and if I don’t want to, the same thing.”