They came, they are all here ? Finally no. After three months of interruption, PSG finds this Monday, June 22 the path of training at Camp des Loges, but its areopagus of stars is not sold out. Missing are Edinson Cavani and Thomas Meunier. The Uruguayan striker and the Belgian defender, both on the start, did not want to sign the two-month extension of their contracts and thus end the season with the capital’s club. They preferred not to risk injury before continuing their career elsewhere, at Borussia Dortmund for Thomas Meunier, in a club which is not yet revealed for Edinson Cavani.
→ ANALYSIS. Sport caught up by “retromania”
PSG cannot therefore count on them for its next big meetings: the two tricolor cups, from France against Saint-Étienne (probably on July 24 or 25) and the League against Olympique Lyonnais (probably the July 31 or 1is August), and especially the final eight of the Champions League, new formula of the European Cup. Confirmed by UEFA on June 17, it will bring together the eight best European teams in Lisbon from August 12 to 23 for a tournament starting from the quarter-finals in a single cleaver match.
A limited choice on the bench, a rather late recovery, a delicate program to set up, the coming weeks look complicated for PSG. As for Olympique Lyonnais, the first French club to put on their crampons on June 8, but which must even sooner than PSG fix a match at the European summit, with its eighth finals return against Juventus Turin (1-0 on the outward journey) on August 7 or 8.
Avoid injury
For the two French clubs, the situation is very special. All their future opponents in the Champions League benefit from the resumption of their championships. Juventus will face Lyon with 12 Serie A games in their legs. And all the teams that will find themselves in Lisbon will have garnered fifteen. PSG and OL will be short of high level competition? “We will not be playing on an equal footing. It’s a puzzle. We are not given all our chances and that is what is frustrating ”, grumbled Paolo Rongoni, the physical trainer of OL in early June.
Except that. The German, Spanish, English and Italian clubs, by pushing back the lawn after long weeks of stoppage, are already confronted with numerous injuries. Challenge for French clubs: avoid filling the infirmary with players weakened by months of scarcity. “If in the future we do not have more injuries than the others, we can say that we have on the other hand freshness”, consoled himself last week Jean-Michel Aulas, president of OL.
Chain friendly matches
For PSG, advancing on this ridge line will depend on the state of the troops. The tests carried out from this Monday will first make it possible to assess whether Neymar, M’Bappé and others have not lost too much during this long period of forced rest. To compose the program then, the club will have to rely on upset medical supervision during confinement. The performance manager Martin Buchheit, present for six years, a doctor and a physiotherapist were thanked. Entering the game Gian Nicola Bisciotti, chief physiologist of the sports hospital of Doha (Qatar). A consequence of last season where many injuries had handicapped PSG?
Lyon, also penalized last year by its surprisingly full infirmary, will also have to find the right measure. The club is planning an internship at Évian in early July, then a series of friendly matches, notably during a tournament at Groupama Stadium in Lyon from July 13 to 18. But with who ? “It’s very difficult to find opponents for friendly matches”, recently noted coach Rudi Garcia. PSG should start their own on July 8, with a meeting with the club’s under 19s. Before, hopes the coaching, to continue with a match every three days, including one against Le Havre on July 11 or 12. PSG should not ultimately participate in the tournament organized by Lyon.
For the two clubs, the puzzle is complicated by another fact to take into account: reconciling a peak in form in mid-August with the need not to interfere next season. Because then, Ligue 1 resumes its rights. From the end of August.
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Women of OL and PSG also in the race
The women also will inaugurate the formula of the final phase to eight in the Champions League. The European coronation will be contested in two cities in the Spanish Basque Country, San Sebastian and Bilbao, between August 21 and 30. Paris-Saint-Germain must face the English Arsenal in the quarter-finals, and Olympique lyonnais the German Bayerns. But the question of the competitiveness of the two French clubs does not arise in the same way as for men. Like the D1 tricolor women, most of the European women championships were definitively interrupted, in particular in Spain, Italy and England. Only the Germans resumed on May 29, for eight days which will end on June 28 but they will land in Spain after almost two months without competition. The French, on the other hand, will be able to gain strength with the semi-finals of the Coupe de France scheduled for early August (Guingamp-OL and Bordeaux-PSG) and perhaps the final scheduled for August 9 at Auxerre.
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