Tuesday evening, it is perhaps the two best teams of the moment who will face each other: Paris Saint-Germain welcomes FC Barcelona to the Parc des Princes, on the occasion of the third day of this group stage of the Champions League. A duel awaited by the supporters of the two teams, but also by millions of fans across the planet, since it will be the opportunity to see two teams with particularly formidable offensive weapons face to face…
But across Europe, via the media and social networks, a new trend is starting to emerge. More and more observers believe that PSG is at an advantage, since the supposed weakness of Ligue 1 allows Luis Enrique to rotate in the championship and to be able to rest his stars for the Champions League. What English clubs cannot do for example. “They can make the players breathe when they play matches just before the Champions League… it’s different for us when we go to Anfield”even explained Manchester City coach Enzo Maresca, sparking strong reactions in England and France.
Dembélé scares Barça
An observation that is somewhat shared in Barcelona. Without going so far as to criticize Paris Saint-Germain or Ligue 1, the Catalans are a little worried about the difference in playing time of the stars of each team so far. The media Sport even goes so far as to explain that “Dembélé’s “holidays” are a danger for Barça”. The media highlights the fact that in the championship, Dembélé only played 37% of possible minutes, or 238 minutes out of 630, after being on the pitch for 27 minutes against Strasbourg on Saturday. Other players like Désiré Doué or Khvicha Kvaratskhelia respectively hover around 56% and 59% of total game time played.
The newspaper specifies that Lamine Yamal has played 91.5% of possible minutes in La Liga, while Raphinha is at 80%. Two totally opposite situations therefore, and in Barcelona, many already fear a difference in physical freshness which could make the difference in a match which promises to be particularly balanced. And above all, our Catalan friends know well the qualities of Dembouzhe who had also left a very good memory in the Blaugrana locker room despite an adventure marked by a certain irregularity on the pitch…
