PARIS SAINT-GERMAIN
Paris Saint-Germain’s ‘night out’ following last season’s Champions League elimination by Real Madrid
PSG were 2-0 ahead in the tie and cruising into the quarter-finals before Karim Benzema’s quick-fire hat-trick dumped them out.
The years go by but nothing ever seems to change at Paris Saint-Germain. Despite numerous tweaks to the ‘project’ run by Qatar Sports Investments and president Nasser Al Khelaïfi, egos, disputes and indiscipline continue to undermine their attempts to achieve their ultimate goal of winning the Champions League. Current boss Christophe Galtier, who has done his utmost to unite the dressing room this season, has been tripped up by the same obstacles as his predecessors, some of whom will barely have believed the things they had to deal with, including an incident following last season’s collapse against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu.
Another Champions League disaster for PSG in Madrid
On 9 March, PSG suffered yet another Champions League knockout round disaster. A goal ahead after the first leg of their round of 16 clash against Los Blancos, Mauricio Pochettino’s side took the lead in Madrid and appeared to be cruising through to the quarter-finals with under half-an-hour of the second leg still to play. However, three goals from Karim Benzema in the space of 17 minutes allowed the hosts to progress when it looked as if they were dead and buried. According to RMC, several PSG players had already arranged a night out in the Spanish capital, assuming that they would be going through.
The bright lights of Madrid hard to resist
And despite the crushing defeat, it appears that those players had no intention of giving up some downtime in one of Europe’s liveliest cities. President Al Khelaïfi was forced to furiously intervene to ensure that all members of the travelling PSG party boarded the plane home and disciplined those who had planned to extend their stay in Madrid. The incident led to another internal crisis at the Parc des Princes and ultimately the departures of sporting director Leonardo and manager Pochettino, who were replaced by Luis Campos and Galtier respectively.
PSG’s horrendous start to 2023
Not that the changes have made much of a difference, with clashes of egos proving too much for the club’s management to handle on occasion. After a promising start to the new era at the start of the season, PSG have fallen into the same old traps as in previous years. They were knocked out of the Coupe de France in the round of 16, were comfortably beaten at the same stage of this year’s Champions League by Bayern Munich and have already suffered seven defeats in 2023, the same as in the entirety of 2022. The direction the club is going in raises more questions than answers.