Neymar will not leave for Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday evening against Real Madrid in the Champions League.
PSG manager Thomas Tuchel has all his forwards available for the group stage match at the Bernabeu stadium and has decided that Neymar, alongside Edinson Cavani, will sit on the bench. Instead, Kylian Mbappe, Mauro Icardi and Angel Di Maria will be in the front row.
The main reason is that Neymar – finishing first in ESPN’s FC 100 – recently returned from an injury that put him aside for a few weeks.
The Brazilian international played just 65 minutes at home in the 2-0 win against Lille on Friday and struggled to make an impact on the game. He is running out of fitness and Tuchel has told ESPN FC sources that he does not want to take the risk of starting him in a game of this caliber.
Tuchel also doesn’t want to abandon his 4-3-3 formation, which means that only three of his five-star players can start.
Cavani is far below Icardi in the order of success and Di Maria has so far been the best PSG player this season – scoring nine goals and nine assists in 19 games in all competitions – and cannot be dropped.
The last spot was therefore between Neymar and Mbappe.
France’s Mbappe international is also not physically better after suffering two injuries and a virus since the beginning of the season. He’ll probably be able to play all 90 minutes on Tuesday night, but Tuchel judged him to be more ready than Neymar.
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