Winner of the Champions Trophy, Ligue 1, the French Cup and the Champions League on May 31 at the end of a historic final against Inter (5-0) and, finally, unhappy finalist of the Club World Cup, beaten by Chelsea in the final (3-0), on July 13 in New York, PSG played a record season at 65 matches. AS Monaco had already played as many games during the 2016-2017 season.
The training of Luis Enrique is launching its season next Wednesday against Tottenham, in European Super Cup, in Udinese, without having played the slightest preparation match. And the Red and Blue will chain with a first in Ligue 1 against Nantes, the following Sunday at Beaujoire. By winning the C1, the Parisians also added an additional second official match – and a last possible trophy in 2025 – with the intercontinental cup on December 17 (the place has not yet been communicated by FIFA).
In the Champions League, PSG will obviously be the team to be killed as the title holder. In the new formula launched last year, with eight days on behalf of the first phase, the heads of the start of them and marquinhos and its teammates will thus fall on two of the other teams of the first hat of the draw, namely Real Madrid, Manchester City, Bayern, Liverpool, Inter, Chelsea, Borussia Dortmund and Barça.
PSG in Azerbaijan or Kazakhstan?
PSG (but this is also the case for OM and AS Monaco, the other two qualified Ligue 1 teams) must also avoid Arsenal, Atlético, Napoli, Tottenham, Bilbao or Newcastle in the other three hats. Knowing that the hexagonal clubs are more likely to come across the premier League and La Liga opponents (there are five English clubs and as many Spaniards, and they cannot compete).
The disaster would also be to inherit a distant trip to the borders of Europe, even downright in Asia. Wednesday evening in Kazakhstan, a country in Central Asia which joined UEFA in 2002, the FK Kaïrat Almaty beat Slovan Bratislava (1-0) in the third round of qualifying. The day before, Qarabag, azerbaijan club based in Baku, won against the Macedonians of Shkendija (0-1). If they then leave the LDC dams, these two clubs will be avoided even for PSG.
