With Kylian Mbappé, but without Ousmane Dembélé, Paris SG is playing for its future in the Champions League this Wednesday, December 13 against Borussia Dortmund. A victory would secure them first place in the group, any other result would expose them to elimination and a landing in the Europa League.
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Paris Saint-Germain is already playing its season on Wednesday in Dortmund: if the Parisians do not want to rush into the crisis and winter depression, they must qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League. To make their task easier and come out first and with their heads held high in the difficult Group F, they will have to beat Borussia in front of their “yellow wall”, after their draw snatched at the last minute against Newcastle on November 28 (1-1).
Second in its group with two away defeats (4-0 at Newcastle, 2-1 at Milan), PSG must above all avoid the worst against the Germans, already qualified: an elimination so early in C1 has not yet happened. never produced since 2011 and the Qataris takeover.
Finishing 3rd in the group and being transferred to the Europa League would be a failure, especially since the BVB will have to play with several absent, injured (Haller, Nmecha, Ryerson) or suspended (captain Emre Can).
This scenario would plunge PSG into a crisis even before the arrival of winter: even if the club is counting on him in the long term, the credit of Luis Enrique would be damaged, and the question of the future of Kylian Mbappé, free to sign for a new club in January, would come back in force.
A heavy locker among the “big guys”
Faced with their European destiny, do the Parisians really have the means to finally achieve a benchmark match away from the Parc des Princes, which has never happened to them since the start of the season, neither in the Champions League nor in the Ligue 1?
Such a performance even dates back a very long time in the group stage in C1: since 2012, the Parisians have constantly lost among the “big guys”, Porto, Lisbon, Munich, Liverpool, Madrid, Barcelona, City, Arsenal and Naples, apart from in 2020 at Old Trafford against Manchester United (without audience) and against Juventus Turin (already eliminated) last year.
With a victory, his players will even finish at the top of the group, ahead of Dortmund, and will be able to end the year 2023 calmly, whatever the result of Newcastle at Saint-James Park against AC Milan.
In the event of a defeat, however, the Parisians, who are two points ahead of Newcastle and Milan, would have to count on a draw between the two other teams in the group to advance.
Finally, in the event of a draw in Germany, Paris SG would qualify for the round of 16 only if Newcastle do not beat AC Milan.
Without Dembélé, with Zaire-Emery
Less good away, PSG, which should be supported by around 3,000 supporters expected in Dortmund, will also have to do without Ousmane Dembélé, suspended.
The Frenchman, the player who “is most unbalanced in the world” according to his coach, will be missed in the Parisian attack and in the right lane. He could be replaced by the Korean Lee Kang-In whose relationship with Achraf Hakimi is less complicit than with Dembélé, creating less offensive momentum, even if Luis Enrique’s compositions are often unprecedented.
His absence will in any case change the dynamics of the Parisian attack, as at the start of the match against Nantes on Saturday, with Kylian Mbappé positioned in the center as against Le Havre the previous weekend. The Parisian superstar, often accused of not supporting his team sufficiently in big matches, will in any case be expected to be there in Germany.
The complicated period that Gianluigi Donnarumma is going through – guilty of several hand or foot faults in recent matches and excluded at Le Havre – is not reassuring either.
There are still some positive points on which the Parisians can rely: the returns from injury of captain Marquinhos and French midfielder Warren Zaire-Emery, essential and present in the group.
With this good news, Mbappé’s teammates will try to get out of the trap of group E. And to slip into the eighth, almost as if nothing had happened.
Teams already qualified for the round of 16
Bayern Munich, FC Copenhagen, Arsenal, PSV Eindhoven, Real Madrid, Naples, Real Sociedad, Inter Milan, Lazio Rome, Atlético de Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Manchester City, RB Leipzig, FC Barcelona.