Among the directors who were part of Josep Maria Bartomeu’s board is still remembered that night of March 8, 2017 when Sergi Roberto stretched his leg to score the goal that left PSG with a slap in the face. At the Camp Nou box office, the managers lost their roles, celebrating the goal as if they were younger and watching the matches in the stands. Barça had just become the first club to lift a European tie after losing 4-0 in the first leg. And he had done it against PSG. “That’s why it was held twice. We could say that the relationship was complicated, between the two clubs,” says a former manager. “Some clubs play with other weapons, they don’t play clean, we compete against state clubs,” Bartomeu said in 2018 referring especially to the French club.
PSG and Barça have starred in one of the great sporting rivalries of the 21st century. They have met three times and Barça have always won, although curiously in the 90’s it was PSG who ended Barça’s last season on Cruyff’s bench. “In France, PSG reigns supreme, but their dream is to be able to win the Champions League. Only Marseille has done it. And PSG does not stop spending money to try to achieve it. And in this struggle it has clashed in recent years with Barça, a club that had become a benchmark to beat “, says former Barça player Christophe Dugarry.
PSG was born in 1970, after a joint operation by the French Federation and Paris City Council to give the capital a winning club, because then it had none. A club born in the offices thought to be big, which would win the league for the first time in 1985 with Gérard Houllier – who died on the day of the draw at the age of 73 – on the bench. Despite winning a Recopa, PSG has struggled to lead Europe and Barça has become their nightmare, defeating them in a Recopa final in the 1990s and eliminating them in the Champions League. Last year, with Barça shattered by Bayern, the French made their debut in a final, which they lost. A match in which, curiously, scored Coman, a boy from Paris, former club player and PSG fan, who plays with the Germans.
PSG have always preferred to sign players rather than train them. It doesn’t have bad grassroots football, but as it is the team of a city that has become the center of political power, a proud city, PSG has been controlled by all sorts of ambitious businessmen, from Canal + to an American company. But the big step forward has been made with the arrival of Qatar money. The origin of the purchase operation is a meeting on 23 November 2010 at the Elysee Palace with then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Prince Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and UEFA President Michel Platini . Sarkozy proposed to Al-Thani to invest in PSG, then in crisis, and Al-Thani asked for Platini’s support in the race to host the 2022 World Cup. And so PSG changed hands.
Messi against Neymar: the first and last reunion as rivals in the Champions League?
With an Arab owner, PSG still do not win the Champions League. “They sign great players, but many of them are more outstanding stars in their brilliance than in forming a team. It’s scary to see Mbappé copy Neymar’s bad vices,” said Dugarry, who also criticizes a Barça that has gone from being the reference to not having a project “:” It will be a great opportunity for PSG “. At Barça, he has never liked to see clubs like PSG and City receive state money, and he argues against UEFA that the source of investment should be more controlled. PSG and Barça live on the opposite side, if we look at the club model.
To try to put order among so many rich players, PSG has been changing coach in recent years. Carlo Ancelotti (2011-2013), Laurent Blanc (2013-2016), Unai Emery (2016-2018) and, finally, the German Thomas Tuchel, who has created a fairly balanced team, alternate tactical systems.
Neymar earrings
With Keylor Navas and Sergio Rico in goal, and talented players such as Verratti, Di María, Paredes and former Barça player Rafinha, PSG have overcome a difficult group in the Champions League ahead of Manchester United and RB Leipzig, despite who has suffered more setbacks than expected in the league. Defeats such as Lens, at home against Marseille and this past weekend against Lyon have equaled a lot in a classification in which PSG is third, one point behind the lead. And all in all, waiting to know what happens to Neymar, injured in the last game and a great reference along with Mbappé.
“Neymar’s signing did a lot of damage, don’t forget”, they tell Barça, recalling how in recent years the two clubs have faced the transfer market for players such as Thiago Silva, Verratti, De Jong, Marquinhos, Rabiot and, of course, Messi. In Paris they dream of the Argentine while Neymar would not mind returning to Barcelona, where he left in a signing that the PSG board celebrated as if it were a victory on the pitch. But not with the Brazilian has come the long-awaited Champions for which PSG has spent more than 1 billion on signings in the last eight seasons. And now he is back against Barça, the club he first admired and then tried to defeat.
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