Before the quarter-final second leg of the Champions League at Aston Villa Is Paris Saint-Germain Favorite. But the young team of coach Luis Enrique is much more trusted.
Désiré Doué, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Nuno Mendes: The names of the Paris goal scorers on the scoreboard in Parc des Princes After the 3-1 first leg victory in the quarter -finals of the Champions League against Aston Villa say a lot about how things are currently going at Paris Saint-Germain. All three are talented, and two of them are new to the team.
Paris wanted to force success for a long time
There were times when Paris wanted to force success. In order to fulfill the big dream of winning the Champions League, Lionel Messi and Neymar were submitted to the French capital. President Nasser Al-Khelaifi invested as chairman of the Qatar Sports Investments Hummy into the squad.
The stars came and the stars went. Renowned coaches also put the jack in hand – among other things, Carlo Ancelotti, Laurent Blanc, Unai Emery, Thomas Tuchel and Mauricio Pochettino worked at the Seine. But it was never enough to victory in the premier class.
Messi has long been playing in MiamiNeymar is now back at FC Santos. And with Kylian Mbappé, who moved to Real Madrid, the last world star has left Paris in summer.
New philosophy at PSG
Nevertheless has PSG made it into the quarter -finals of the Champions League and is there in the second leg on Wednesday Aston Villa (from 9 p.m. in the live ticker at Sportschau) the favorite. At the latest after the success against FC Liverpool In the round of 16, the French are even the title of the title this year.
A new philosophy has returned to the blue-red. Although the club continues to throw money (the current transfer record has a minus of 109.82 million euros), but the access has a different quality.
Paris currently has a number of exceptional young people who have an outstanding way of playing and bring a lot of speed onto the square. Since the Mbappé fixed point is no longer there, the offensive team has been considered enormously homogeneous and, above all, unpredictable. Every player is dangerous, every player scores goals.
And the team wants football and is hungry. This was already evident in the intermediate round when Stade Brest with a total of 10: 0 goals from the Champions League.
Enrique has shaped a homogeneous team
Young players seem to lie better coach Luis Enrique than difficult world stars. An expression of the new way of thinking in Paris is also the fact that the Spaniard has only extended his contract early until 2027 and has been working on the club for almost two years.
The newly baked French master has an average age of 23.7 years. They still exist, the seasoned professionals and pillars such as Gianluigi Donnarumma, Marquinhos, Achraf Hakimi, Lucas Hernandez, Fabian Ruiz, Ousmane Dembélé or Randal Kolo Muani.
Ousmane Dembele hugs Luis Enrique
But there are also the young players who make the Enrique team the good mix that it takes to be successful. In defense, for example, this are Willian Pacho (23), who only came from Eintracht Frankfurt in the summer, and the Portuguese Nuno Mendes (22). Warren Zaïre-Emery (19) and Joao Neves (20) pull the threads in midfield. On the wings, Bradley Barcola (22), Désiré Doué (19) and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (24) provide a fuss. The Georgian came from Naples in winter, Doué was from Stade Rennes obligated. And center forward Goncalo Ramos is only 23.
In any case, Enrique has managed to form a homogeneous group, a unit that may never have existed in Paris. In addition to FC Barcelona, PSG is the team in this Champions League season, which one likes to watch as a neutral fan.
But even if it shouldn’t work again this year, Paris with its new philosophy, all the young players and Constance on the coaching bench may soon be able to fulfill the dream of the Champions League victory-without any world stars like Messi, Neymar and Mbappé on the scoreboard.