PSG head into Champions League last 16 with all eyes on Kylian Mbappé
The Paris Saint-Germain manager, Luis Enrique, was reluctant to talk about Kylian Mbappé before Wednesday’s Champions League match with Real Sociedad. Mbappé has been nursing a sore left ankle and was an unused substitute in Saturday’s league game against Lille.
Asked on Tuesday if Mbappé was ready to start in the first leg of their last-16 contest, Luis Enrique replied with a terse “yes”. “He could have played four days ago if it was a final,” the coach said. “But since it wasn’t, it wasn’t worth taking the risk.”
The 25-year-old’s contract runs out at the end of June and the France forward has yet to say if he will stay, with reports heavily linking him with a move to longtime suitor Real Madrid. It was put to Luis Enrique that the match at Parc des Princes could be Mbappé’s last home game for the club in the Champions League. “No,” Luis Enrique said, flatly. “That is not how I feel about it.”
PSG are 11 points clear in Ligue 1 while Real Sociedad are seventh in La Liga. But competition in Spain is generally stronger and Ligue 1 has not produced a credible rival this season, as it did when Montpellier (in 2012), Mbappé’s Monaco (2017) and Lille (2021) won the title, and when Lens fell short by one point last season. Once again, all eyes are on the Champions League as a true indicator of PSG’s level.
“I’m not going to answer that,” Luis Enrique said when asked if PSG were favourites to go through. “It matters little what I say. The favourite needs to show it on the field.”
He may be trying to take some pressure off his players and understandably so, given PSG’s underwhelming record in the competition. The Qatar-owned club has spent fortunes on players such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Edinson Cavani, Mbappé, Neymar and Lionel Messi but have been eliminated from the last 16 of the Champions League five times in the past seven seasons.
Arguably the most humiliating performance in PSG’s history was the 6-1 loss to Barcelona in 2017 – with Luis Enrique in charge of Barça – having won the first leg 4-0. Since that defeat, the Champions League has defined PSG’s season. Frustrated fans have heaped even more pressure on a team with a reputation for falling short in the big games, even turning on Neymar and Messi.
Luis Enrique is trying to change his players’ mental approach. “It’s not a case of protecting the players, it’s a case of staying as natural as possible,” he said. “The best way to approach these games is to be relaxed.”
The message seems to have got through. “We don’t feel obliged to win [the Champions League], but we want to win it. We don’t feel any particular pressure or obligation,” said midfielder Fabián Ruiz. “We can’t control what goes on outside but we can from the inside and I assure you that we feel calm.”
Ruiz sees Real Sociedad as a tactically astute and strong “counter-pressing” side, while Luis Enrique praised the work of his counterpart, Imanol Alguacil, who took charge in 2018. “They have been playing good football for the past six years. They are reaping the rewards of this work. They are one of the teams which concedes the least goals in the Champions League and they will give us no gifts.”