Paris (AFP)
The Argentine coach of Paris Saint-Germain, Mauricio Pochettino, stressed, on Tuesday, the need to have “self-confidence” against Real Madrid, the opponent of the Paris club in the price of the Champions League final.
After initially falling on Manchester United and its new old Portuguese star, Cristiano Ronaldo, a mistake in the European Union’s draw for the game on Monday caused it to be completely returned, so Saint-Germain came the second time against Real Madrid, the record holder for the number of competition titles (13).
The confrontation between the two poles of the French and Spanish capitals is the most prominent in the final price, and it will return Argentine star Lionel Messi to Spain to face the team that was his opponent from 2004 until last season when he was defending the colors of Barcelona.
Pochettino stressed, in the wake of the draw, the need to “have self-confidence”, saying that Saint-Germain “has the quality enough to win this match and move to the next round. This is the goal.”
It is certain that the goal of the Saint-Germain administration is far from reaching the quarter-finals, and for this reason it has spent a lot of money signing players such as Brazilian Neymar and Kylian Mbappe, and finally Messi and former Real captain Sergio Ramos, or Moroccan Ashraf Hakimi, who was founded in football in the Spanish capital club, But he defended his colors in only 17 games in all competitions due to his loaning to Borussia Dortmund for two seasons, before giving it up in the summer of 2020 to the Italian Inter.
Pochettino acknowledged, according to what was reported by the club’s official website, the difficulty of the task against Real in two difficult matches, because it is a team that has a wonderful coach and great players, in reference to the Italian Carlo Ancelotti, who had previously coached Saint-Germain from the end of 2011 until 2013, before leaving him to supervise Real in the first time. Experiment with the latter.
The first leg will be on February 15 in Paris, before Pochettino’s men are guests of the Royal Club on March 9, for a second leg.
It will be the second time that the two teams will meet in the knockout stage of the main continental competition, after the 2017-2018 season, when Real won 3-1 in the first leg and 2-1 in the second leg, before Saint Germain regained his reputation in the following season, but in the group stage when he won the first leg over His home 3-0 before a 2-2 draw in the second leg.
And each of the two teams sings alone at the top of their country’s league, as Saint-Germain leads by 13 points from its closest followers after 18 stages, while Real is 8 points behind Seville, the second and 13 from its arch-rival Atletico, the defending champion, after its victory over the latter 2-0 in the 17th stage. Sunday in the capital derby.
But for Pochettino, the confrontation against Real “will be in February, and therefore the current technical situation does not mean much. The most important thing is that we arrive in February in the best possible conditions and evaluate each player individually.
He believed that luck always plays its role, such as injuries that can affect the team, promising that his team’s performance will improve as the weeks progress in his response to the criticism directed at him due to the fluctuating performance of Messi and his companions, who are currently missing Neymar due to injury, but he will be ready to face rivals Real “defended previously.” About Barcelona’s colors” since his return is expected in the middle of next month.
.