PSG must strike while iron is hot

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/02/2020 (2218 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Edinson Cavani’s contract expires at the end of this season. Ditto those of Thiago Silva, Thomas Meunier, Layvin Kurzawa and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting. Mauro Icardi is also in the final year of his pact, although he’s currently on loan, anyway.

In other words, the Paris Saint-German squad set to face Amiens today (10:30 a.m., beIN Sports), and, far more crucially, Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday (2 p.m., DAZN), will have a rather different look to it in just a few months. Which means — as it seems to every campaign but most certainly this one — that the French champions in six of the past seven seasons will be desperate, extra desperate, to cap their recent Ligue 1 success with a European Cup in May.

Given the strength of the team in every position and the relative health of the playing personnel (Neymar is day-to-day with a bruised rib and Marquinhos has a muscle strain), PSG have never been so well-positioned to advance through the knock-out stages of the Champions League.

As a club, they’ve only once made a semifinal, losing both legs to AC Milan in 1995, and since the Qatar Sports Investments takeover in 2011, and the record spending that followed, they’ve never progressed beyond the quarter-finals. Embarrassingly, they’ve bowed out at Round of 16 in each of the past three seasons — relinquishing a 4-0 aggregate advantage to Barcelona in 2017, barely turning up against Real Madrid the year after and somehow losing 3-1 at home to Manchester United last term.

It seems the ease with which the most costly team in football can cruise through the French top flight, drubbing the likes of Nimes, Toulouse and Amiens, doesn’t exactly translate to the superhighway of the Champions League, where genuine contenders are already in top gear and have been through much of the schedule.

While Neymar is throwing himself a lavish birthday party (white attire only) against the wishes of manager Thomas Tuchel, Bayern Munich are putting in the work to peak at the right moment of a competitive Bundesliga title race. While Kylian Mbappe throws a tantrum after being substituted in a 5-0 shellacking of Montpellier, Liverpool are working on the minutiae of throw-ins.

Neymar and Mbappe, incidentally, are the two most expensive footballers in history. They’ve combined for 39 goals in 2019-20 and headline one of the most impressive attacking corps in the sport. But they’ve also failed, time and again, to take PSG deep into the competition they most want to win. The opportunity to face a Dortmund side without Marco Reus and weak in defence should be one they fancy, even if Neymar is only fit for the second leg.

As it happens, Neymar will likely agitate for a move back to Barcelona in the summer, and Real Madrid will almost certainly come in with a big offer for Mbappe. So the Brazil and France forwards could soon be making their Parc-des-Princes exits as well.

PSG have never had as good a chance as this to triumph in Europe. It might be their final chance to do it with this group.

Spot-kicks • Manchester City are another club for which winning the Champions League is now or never. On Friday the Adjudicatory Chamber of the Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) notified UEFA that it had found the Premier League champions in violation of financial fair play (FFP) regulations and was issuing a two-year Champions League suspension, as well as a €30 million fine. City have called the CFCB’s process “prejudicial” and “hostile” and will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. They may well win their case, or at least have it reduced. But one thing is for certain: the appeal will be the biggest, and perhaps final, test of FFP interpretation, as well as its legislative power when put to the judiciary.

• “Alphonso Davies: Is the Bayern Munich teenager one of the best left-backs in the world?” So asked an article on the official Bundesliga website on Friday. Davies, a Canada international, has been impressing with his strength, his crosses and his pace in recovery this season and has been instrumental in Bayern’s assault on the top of the table.

• Another Canadian, Jonathan David, is also moving from strength to strength in European football. With a brace in Friday’s 3-2 win at Eupen, the 20-year-old Gent attacker moved into second place on the Belgian goal-scoring chart. He’s scored six goals in his last five matches and has also registered seven assists for the second-place side.

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