Neymar injury conceals a bigger concern: PSG’s defense
PARIS ( AP) — Paris Saint-Germain has more pressing concerns than worrying about whether Neymar will be fit in time to face Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League next week.
Coach Thomas Tuchel’s defense is looking fragile once again. He has so much quality in an attack that has scored 61 goals in the past 16 games that the team does not depend on Neymar going forward.
So Tuchel may be better o focusing his energy on improving a defense which has made sloppy mistakes recently. The PSG back four is set to face the considerable might of Dortmund’s attack in the first leg of their last-16 game on Tuesday.
Neymar has missed the last three games after hurting his rib in a physical league game against Montpellier, where he was repeatedly fouled. Although he has resumed training, he seems likely to miss Saturday’s trip to Amiens.
After all, Amiens is in 19th place and PSG is 12 points ahead at the top, so Tuchel will probably rest the Brazilian. And it’s still unclear whether he’ll be ready for Tuesday.
“I can’t say 100% right now that he’s going to play against Dortmund. We won’t take any risks against Amiens, that’s for sure,” Tuchel said. “We need to be careful, we can’t risk the player’s health. We have a responsibility. It’s a medical decision, the risk is too big.”
PSG is looking to make amends for last year’s round-of-16 loss to Manchester United, where the French team led 2-0 from the first leg but went out on away goals after losing 3-1 at home to an injury-time penalty. That defeat prompted some stinging words from the club’s president and some re- structuring ensued, with the highly-regarded Leonardo returning to reclaim his former role as sporting director.
It also exposed a lack of composure in the PSG side and a frailty in defense that was already evident when it lost 6-1 at Barcelona at the same stage in 2017.
So the pressure is on Tuchel to knock Dortmund out and avoid a fourth straight elimination in the last 16.
But Dortmund has netted 20 times in the past five games, with 19-year-old forwards Erling Haaland and Jadon Sancho scoring freely.
The imposing Haaland has eight goals in five games for Dortmund, having netted 29 in 27 games for Red Bull Salzburg during the first half of the season.