Second night of the Champions League, the big teams like Liverpool, Real Madrid and Bayern have answered the call, as well as Juventus. The big match tonight is Manchester City-Inter but also Borussia Dortmund, European vice-champion, will take to the field in Brugge and Paris Saint-Germain against the newcomer Girona.
The French themselves find themselves, if not at year zero of the Qatari eracertainly in a new guise, almost completely stripped of stars as shiny as they are cumbersome. And in some cases also of many, too many stickers. The latest absolute star, Kylian Mbappé, has already played and scored in Real Madrid’s 3-1 win over Stuttgart. A Mbappé who in his seven years in Paris was not enough to bring the cup with the big ears to the French capital. Just as Lionel Messi was not enough, who instead collected two exits in the round of 16. Or Neymar, the record purchase in the history of football, who stood out in the Champions League above all for his injury-related withdrawals. And then Sergio Ramos and before him Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Big talk on the market and crumbs on the pitch: a final lost against Bayern in 2020, two semi-finals, then four exits in the quarter-finals and five in the round of 16, with the shame of the 6-1 defeat against Barcelona in 2017, pulverizing a cumulative 4-0 advantage from the first leg.
Luis Enrique has built a team in his own image and likeness. No big club has such a young squad and if we look closely, broadening the discussion to all the participants, only Sturm Graz and Salzburg are “greener”: 23.3 years is the average age of PSG, with only Marquinhos having reached 30. In this team Donnarumma is already the young leader. The start of the season says: 4 wins in Ligue 1 and always with at least 3 goals scored. The 4-3-3 with Asensio as a fake 9 works perfectly in his homeland, let’s see now in Europe.