They did not hide it: the Parisians would have preferred to win at Groupama Stadium this Sunday evening. But like Marco Verratti, in the mixed zone, there was reason to be satisfied with the result. “We created chances,” said the Italian midfielder. Kylian (Mbappé) shot the post twice. I think we had control of the game. ”Despite everything, as the knockout stages of the Champions League once morest Real approached, some continue to wonder regarding the shortcomings of PSG. “We must continue like this, warns Verratti. The only way to prepare well for the Madrid game is to work together. I think we’ll be ready. “
The time was above all, on this evening in January, to underline the beautiful entries into play of Simons and Michut. See this youth, “it’s nice,” says Verratti. “Because they deserved their chance,” he adds. Mentally they are already ready. They entered the game well. Édouard provided an assist. Xavi, he’s running around. I am very happy for them. “
Verratti still hears the criticism following another disappointing game in the game. “I can understand, because when you have criticism like that, everyone expects a lot from us,” he said. And we are the first to always want to do more. But I don’t see a team that plays spectacular football other than Manchester City which has an incredible game. But Bayern lost 2-1 at home. It’s a difficult time to play well. “
A little earlier, the evening scorer, Thilo Kehrer, admitted on Prime Video: “We can do better and we must do better. But the German defender insisted on this new equalization at the end of the match. “We know we have a good mentality,” he said. We never let go. We know we are strong in the end of games. You don’t always have to be negative even if we don’t have the three points tonight. “
“We lack this aggressiveness to break lines”
Marquinhos recalled for his part: “It’s the first game of the year for me and a lot of players. We tried to do our best once morest an incredible team opposite, which defends as a whole. “Asked regarding the often too slow transmission, the captain underlines:” It’s a bit our style of play. We have very technical players, but it is true that, sometimes, we lack this aggressiveness of going to break lines and find spaces. We often say to each other that we need players between the lines but we saw it when the young people entered, they followed the advice to go higher. “
Before giving way to his coach, Marquinhos also mentions the upcoming round of 16. “I’ve been here for nine years and everyone is waiting for the Champions League confrontations,” he said. But we must not start to think regarding it already and forget the games we have before. “
Aware of the limits of his team in the first period in particular, Mauricio Pochettino, admitted: “Sometimes, we forced too much to play in the axis, in small spaces. In second, with Xavi (Simons) and Michut, it was better, we had more aggressiveness to receive the ball and play between the lines. “
