Friday evening, the French team was back in business. As part of the third day of qualifying for the 2026 World Cup, Didier Deschamps' men faced and beat Azerbaijan (3-0). Once again relocated from the Stade de France to the Parc des Princes, this match was a great first since 1991 for Paris Saint-Germain players.
Indeed, and as noted Marcafor the first time in more than thirty-four years, no French international player playing for PSG set foot on the pitch at the Parc des Princes while the Blues played in the capital club's lair. The last time this happened was March 30, 1991.
That evening, Michel Platini's Blues played a match counting for the qualifiers for Euro 92. During this large victory validated against Albania (5-0), the French coach had first aligned an eleven composed of Auxerrois, Bruno Martini, Pascal Vahirua and Christophe Cocard, Marseillais, Manuel Amoros, Basile Boli, Eric Cantona and Jean-Pierre Papin, from Laurent Blanc (Montpellier), Jean-Philippe Durand (Bordeaux), Franck Sauzée (Monaco) and Luis Fernandez (AS Cannes).
No PSG player played at the Parc with the Blues this Friday
Pascale Bails (OM) and Didier Deschamps, then a Bordeaux player, entered the game. No Parisian took part in the match. Friday evening, the same scenario happened again. But for very different reasons because Didier Deschamps would obviously have preferred to be able to count on his strengths “made in PSG”.
Unfortunately for the coach, the 2025 Ballon d'Or, Ousmane Dembélé, is still on the sidelines. Same thing for Désiré Doué and Bradley Barcola. There were two players in the group, but Lucas Chevalier and Lucas Hernandez remained on the bench against the Azerbaijanis.
