If we had to dispel the doubts of Wednesday against Mallorca (3-0 defeat), the Parisians showed themselves to be up to the challenge. Against a Manchester United team that was much better armed on paper, Luis Enrique’s men responded with personality and character to do better than compete. By force of circumstances, the Parisian coach had to renew an eleven essentially identical to that of three days ago, with two exceptions: the return of Pacho in place of Lucea, and the tenure of Adam Ayari in place of Quentin Ndjantou.
Ultimately, Paris can draw something positive from this meeting which ended in a draw (1-1). The other reason for satisfaction of the evening concerns the return of several executives, like Marquinhos and the Portuguese Vitinha, Nuno Mendes and Joao Neves. The four came on during the match and could therefore apply for a starting place on Wednesday against Aston Villa in the European Super Cup.
“We moved forward as we wanted to move forward”
“I think it was better (only Wednesday against Mallorca, 0-3), noted Rafel Pol, Luis Enrique’s assistant, after the match. The opponent was tougher, Manchester United is one of the great teams in Europe but we started well with good collective action to score (…) I hope that we will gradually rise to the level necessary to achieve our objectives. I think we moved forward as we wanted to move forward.»
Concerning the feedback from the executives, the idea was to give them as much vacation as possible so that they can regain all their feelings. “They have been training with us for less than a week but they have shown that they have quickly reintegrated into the team. When they came in, we performed well individually and collectively. We are happy with how things are progressing. Will they be able to play more on Wednesday? Yes but it will be other circumstances, similar to Tottenham last year. Before, we had ten days of training and it will be the same for them. The Villans have the advantage of being more advanced in their preparation. They are already in their sixth match, and are coming off a narrow defeat against Bayern Munich (2-1).
