You had to see the faces as you walked down the aisles of the PSG Campus in Poissy on Wednesday to understand that something had changed again in this team. No apparent tension, no artificial nervousness, even less this feeling of weight which often accompanies very big European meetings. Ten days before the Champions League final against Arsenal, PSG gives the impression of a group which has learned to live with the event without being crushed by it. Even the status of title holder seems to be slipping on Parisian shoulders without causing any tension. The players speak calmly, sometimes joke, respond bluntly and without ever falling into arrogance. Désiré Doué almost in spite of himself sums up this particular atmosphere when he explains that the group is approaching this final “with great calm” and he refuses to “put extra pressure on yourself”. Lucas Hernandez talks about his preparation experience “exactly like last year”with the same habits and the same desire to cut out external noise. In the mixed zones, no one says the word fear when it comes to Arsenal. But no one risks the slightest form of superiority either. The players talk about a “great team”of a “Premier League champion”of a collective capable of punishing the slightest error. The respect is real, almost constant, but it never erases this silent conviction which has been running through the Parisian group for several weeks. That of being ready.
This serenity also involves something that Luis Enrique has been repeating for months and which he hammered home again yesterday in front of the journalists present in Poissy. The importance of life’s moments. The importance of leaving football to better return to it. Last year, PSG had to follow up with a Coupe de France final before the Champions League. This time, the calendar leaves space. Air. And the Parisian staff seems to want to protect this balance almost obsessively. Warren Zaire-Emery says that outside of training, he spends “mostly at home with family” because these moments “almost never exist during the season”. Lucas Hernandez describes the same routine, simple and deliberately repetitive. Training, home, family, rest. Désiré Doué also refuses to change his habits despite the approach of the final. “It’s a final, but you have to approach it like a football match”he slips with great maturity. Throughout the speeches, PSG almost gives the impression of a team which seeks to slow down time instead of accelerating towards the event. As if the best way to prepare for the biggest night of the season was to not live only for it. Even Luis Enrique, often obsessed with tactical details, seems to want to protect this psychological balance. At a press conference, he again insisted that he wanted players ” happy “ when they arrive at the Campus. “A little family”he repeats almost affectionately.
A PSG which still continues to shock
But behind this relaxed atmosphere, work continues everywhere. And even much more than last year. It was enough to observe the sessions open to the media to see the immense tactical screens deployed around the Poissy grounds, which had become almost secondary characters in Parisian daily life. PSG works a lot. On placements, transitions, defensive movements, recovery circuits. Luis Enrique also spent a good part of training interrupting exercises to reposition his players, particularly Désiré Doué and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, who were asked for at length in the instructions. The exchanges are constant, precise, sometimes very direct, but never tense. João Neves sums up this obsession with detail well when he explains that the group will multiply “the matches between them” because he considers that there is no “no better opposition” to prepare for a final of this level. Even the small physical alerts of the day did not really change the general climate. Hakimi and Dembélé, remaining in individual work and rest, did not cause any visible concern in the discussions. Nuno Mendes, who quickly left the collective session, immediately calmed the questions by explaining that he felt ” Alright “ and that it was simply part of the planned program. No one seems to be racing against time. PSG acts like a team convinced of arriving exactly where they wanted to be physically.
And then there was this special atmosphere around the media day itself. Rarely has PSG opened its doors so much. Rarely has the club accredited so many foreign journalists, particularly British, who came to observe those who could become Arsenal’s next executioners. In the aisles of the PSG Campus, English accents, notably that of Jamie Carragher, mixed with French and Spanish conversations while Luis Enrique gradually transformed his press conference into a living scene. Joking, relaxed, sometimes provocative, the Spaniard alternated languages with ease, translated certain questions himself, triggered laughter in the room before immediately diving back into an extremely in-depth tactical analysis of Arsenal. He spoke of Arteta with admiration, almost like a colleague he deeply respects. Not once did he seek to demean the adversary or create a climate of revenge. This PSG no longer looks like a team obsessed by the weight of its European history. Yesterday in Poissy, it looked more like a group that has learned to live with very high pressure without letting itself be devoured by it. A group which is preparing perhaps the most important match of its season in the almost strange calm of teams which finally feel in their place.
