Captain Marquinhos: No excuses for PSG’s poor title campaign
PARIS: The verdict on how Paris St Germain’s “unacceptable” league campaign has unraveled came from club captain Marquinhos.
Eight defeats, leads carelessly thrown away, too many red cards and a recurring lack of composure have left PSG trailing Lille by three points heading into tomorrow’s penultimate round of games.
The season after reaching their first Champions League final, PSG have fallen well short of expectations and Marquinhos makes no excuses.
“Since the start of the season we’ve had setbacks we shouldn’t have had. We’ve lost games we shouldn’t have (and) we’re counting the amount of points we’ve lost,0” he said after last Sunday’s 1-1 draw at Rennes, in which PSG had led.
“It’s unacceptable that PSG drop points in this way,” the popular central defender added.
“We’re 1-0 up, 2-0 up and still teams come back against us.”
Rather than coasting to the title as they have so often done since Qatari investors QSI took over 10 years ago, PSG are at the mercy of a Lille side who have only lost three games in a remarkably consistent campaign.
The northern side have been brilliantly coached by Christophe Galtier and can seal their first title since 2011, which was just before QSI took over PSG.
Lille need four points from the remaining two games to guarantee the title, but a draw against St Etienne would be enough if PSG lose to visiting Reims tomorrow.
PSG defender Presnel Kimpembe is suspended for the last two matches, while star forward Neymar has missed five games through suspension
Perhaps the best example of PSG switching off in games, something which clearly irked Marquinhos after the Rennes match, was the 3-2 loss at Lorient.
Despite lining up with Neymar, Kylian Mbappe, Angel Di Maria and Mauro Icardi – known as the “Fantastic Four” and costing a combined US$622mil (RM2.6bil) – PSG conceded two late goals to a side in the relegation zone.
In total, PSG have lost 13 games – including five in the Champions League – and the tally would have been considerably higher without goalkeeper Keylor Navas.
“We have to be honest,” Marquinhos said. “We haven’t been very strong.”
PSG hit panic mode too often when things go wrong.
Di Maria’s petulant red card in the Champions League semi-final defeat to Manchester City was followed by a clumsy red for Kimpembe against Rennes.
Lille hold the cards and statistics suggests the shrewd Galtier – in contention to win France’s best coach for the third time – is unlikely to throw them away.
With 20 clean sheets and 22 goals conceded in 36 games, Lille have an outstanding defense led by veteran centrehalf Jose Fonte. Goalkeeper Mike Maignan is among the best in the league, along with Navas.