Paris Saint-Germain head to Nice on Saturday evening looking to bounce back from two consecutive Ligue 1 defeats and ignore dizzying off-pitch drama.
The futures of both Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi have been freshly scrutinised in the past few weeks, with the Champions League exit to Bayern Munich and losses to Rennes to Lyon not helping matters.
Manager Christophe Galtier recently lamented “we’re dropping points match after match. It’s a difficult league to win”. He’s not expected to be at Parc des Princes next season either and his comments have rattled PSG fans with only nine league games remaining.
GK: Gianluigi Donnarumma – Has 11 clean sheets in Ligue 1 this season, trailing Yehvann Diouf (13) and Brice Samba (12).
CB: Danilo Pereira – Criticised his teammates after defeat to Lyon, saying they ‘don’t give it their all’. Yikes.
CB: Marquinhos – Set to make his 400th appearance for PSG since signing from Roma in 2013. Has won seven Ligue 1 titles in that time.
CB: El Chadaille Bitshiabu – 6’5 at just 17 years of age, Bitshiabu has played out wide and in central defence and may start again due to injuries to Presnel Kimpembe and Sergio Ramos.
RWB: Achraf Hakimi – Played for the first time in almost a month in the defeat to Lyon.
CM: Warren Zaire-Emery – Has done brilliantly in his first season of senior football, even if PSG haven’t achieved all their objectives this term.
CM: Vitinha – A goal in the FA Cup against Chorley wasn’t enough to convince Wolves to use their buy option on Portugal international Vitinha. He’s in slightly loftier surroundings these days.
CM: Renato Sanches – Marco Verratti is out so Sanches could earn just his fifth league start of the season.
LWB: Nuno Mendes – Part of an exciting batch of young stars at PSG who could develop into world class stars.
ST: Lionel Messi – PSG have accepted Messi is unlikely to sign a new contract with the club, so we may be seeing his last stretch of games in France before a mooted return to Barcelona.
ST: Hugo Ekitike – If Mbappe’s dispute over image rights rules him out of PSG’s starting XI, youngster Ekitike could benefit. Has three goals and three assists in Ligue 1 this season.
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Credit: 90min.com
