14 February,2023 08:04 AM IST | Paris | AFP
PSG’s Kylian Mbappe & Lionel Messi (left) at a training session in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, yesterday. Pic/AFP
Paris Saint-Germain striker Kylian Mbappe has made a faster-than-expected return to training ahead of the round of 16 Champions League first-leg home tie with Bayern Munich on Tuesday.
After Mbappe suffered a thigh injury against Montpellier on February 1, the club said he would be out for three weeks. On Saturday, coach Christophe Galtier said he did not think Mbappe would play on Tuesday. "I don't think so. He follows his rehabilitation protocol. He was a victim of a muscle injury," Galtier said. "We will take zero, zero, zero risk with Kylian." But Mbappe trained on Sunday and on Monday was seen in the part of training which is open to the media, participating in an exercise with Lionel Messi, Neymar, Sergio Ramos, goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, Marco Verratti, Achraf Hakimi and Marquinhos.
As PSG face a stern Bayern test, the pressure is firmly on coach Christophe Galtier, given that these big European matches are what define every season for PSG in the Qatar era and their worrying habit of imploding on such occasions. Galtier's brief is to do what all his predecessors - most recently Mauricio Pochettino - have failed to do and win the Champions League after PSG persuaded Mbappe to sign a new contract and stay in the French capital last year rather than join Real Madrid.
This season, it is the other two members of PSG's all-star attack who have been hit by what French media have started to call their Champions League "jinx". Mbappe is doubtful to play despite returning to training and should be fine for the return in Munich on March 8. Messi missed Saturday's 3-1 defeat in Monaco with an apparently minor hamstring complaint, but it remains to be seen if the 35-year-old Argentine will be on top form for Tuesday's showdown.
The post-World Cup hangover that PSG must have dreaded during their outstanding start to the season has not just impacted the fitness of the players who dominated the final in Doha in December. Galtier's team have appeared laboured and have been regularly outfought by domestic opponents while losing four times in 10 games in 2023. They simply could not cope with Marseille's high-energy pressing game as they went out of the French Cup in the last 16 last midweek.
Also Read: Mbappe to miss first leg of Champions League Last-16 tie
"We lost the midfield battle. We can't afford to come out second best in so many challenges in such a game," admitted Galtier. Yet his side fared no better on Saturday in Monaco, provoking an angry reaction from supporters who had unveiled banners with messages for the team such as "Wake Up". The coach could lament the stomach bug that ripped through his squad on the morning of the Monaco game, but it was another defeat which laid bare the lack of balance in his squad. The drop off in quality up front when any of Mbappe, Messi or Neymar are missing is enormous, and brings into focus the club's decision to allow Pablo Sarabia to leave in January and not bring in a replacement - they failed to complete the paperwork to sign Hakim Ziyech.
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