Pochettino’s PSG take on Euro kings Bayern
▶ Faltering league campaign and Neymar’s red card against Lille will be weighing on manager’s mind
Two domestic title races, featuring the holders who normally win their leagues as a matter of routine, reached crossroads moments at the weekend.
In France, Lille went to Ligue 1 holders Paris Saint-Germain, second against first, joined on points. In Germany, Leipzig played leaders Bayern Munich, with a chance to close the gap on the latter to a single point.
Bayern had a major concern. Leading goalscorer, Robert Lewandowski, had picked up a knee injury on international duty with Poland grave enough to keep him out for, perhaps, all of April. PSG had good news for their summit meeting. Neymar was ready to make a first start, post-injury, after almost two months.
As it turned out, Bayern managed fine without their stellar centre-forward. Meanwhile, PSG would finish their high-pressure fixture with their star, Neymar, no longer on the pitch. He had been sent off.
Bayern won 1-0 at Leipzig to gain a seven-point lead with seven matches left. The Bundesliga title, one of six trophies they collected from the disrupted 2019-20 season, looks safe.
PSG, on the other hand, skate on thin ice. With seven Ligue 1 games left and Neymar suspended, they have fallen behind Lille by three points. How much of that baggage PSG manage to leave behind when they kick off their Champions League quarter-final at Bayern tonight is part of the challenge for Mauricio Pochettino.
The manager is relatively fresh to the job, but has some experience of rollercoaster title races – with Tottenham Hotspur – and of reversing the odds, as he did with Spurs in 2019 on the journey to a European Cup final.
But he has very little silverware from a lauded career. When he won the French Super Cup, a first trophy as manager, in only the third match after his January appointment at PSG, Pochettino was inheriting a prize earned by last season’s successful campaign, under Thomas Tuchel.
Pochettino’s path since has been far from smooth. He has overseen four PSG league defeats in 14 matches. It is not the sort of ratio for the well-funded club, who have been France champions seven times in the past eight years.
Pochettino highlighted a problem of “consistency” of
“ups and downs” after the Lille setback. He avoided judgement on Neymar’s hot-tempered departure from the field, in the 90th minute. The Brazilian was involved in various confrontations with Lille’s Tiago Djalo, who had also been shown a second yellow card, as the two players returned to their dressing rooms.
Pochettino needs his superstar calm for Bayern, closer to the version of Neymar that helped to drive Tuchel’s PSG to last season’s Champions League final, against Bayern.
Neymar was in tears after the 1-0 defeat. He had often galvanised PSG to a historic high, their first European Cup final and fallen short at the last step.
The pressure weighs heavy on PSG and Neymar, the game’s most expensive player bought for €222m from Barcelona, to deliver to win club football’s biggest prize.
A re-run of last season’s final at the last-eight stage is the hurdle that was least welcome when the draw for the quarter-finals was made.
Hansi Flick, the Bayern manager, insists what happened in the Lisbon final last August counts for nothing. “For us, it’s irrelevant. New game, different players, and PSG have a new coach as well.”
The loss of Lewandowski is a significant difference, and Bayern may also miss striker Serge Gnabry, who missed training with a sore throat.
A PSG with Neymar and Kylian Mbappe in harness, with their Mbappe-inspired 4-1 win at Barcelona in the last round in the rear-view mirror, are entitled to imagine they have the superior attacking options.
“They have enormous quality going forward,” Flick said. “That’s what we have to stop. It’s about keeping our shape when we are in possession, and minding out for our defensive positions. But we’ve been conceding fewer goals and been tighter at closing up gaps, which will be important.”
Pochettino also has absences to compensate for. Marco Verratti and Alessandro Florenzi are out, having returned positive Covid-19 tests. Leandro Paredes, his midfield organiser, is suspended, while Mauro Icardi, the striker and Laywin Kurzawa, the left-back, are injured. Of equal concern is the rickety recent form.