Paris Saint-Germain, top of the league. Not much of a surprise there, but the Ligue 1 champions still have a massive week ahead of them as they bid to stay in contention to reach the Champions League knockouts – yet can’t take their eye off the ball domestically, either.
For Luis Enrique’s team, there’s probably only one priority in the week ahead. The Parisian side are in danger of missing the cut amid Europe’s top 24, improbable as it seems, and with two league phase games left they are one point adrift of Dinamo Zagreb, PSV and Manchester City to sneak into those Champions League playoff places. Their remaining fixtures are at home to the last of those three sides, a big clash anyway but a crunch one now, and then away to Stuttgart – who themselves are on the same points as PSG, just behind on goal difference.
It really could go any which way between that triumvirate in particular, given Man City’s recent poor form, PSG’s lax showing on the continent, and the German side’s recent run of six wins in seven across all competitions. Even so, it’s in their own hands: win twice and PSG will certainly be in the playoffs. Luis Enrique will expect his team to do exactly that, however difficult the opposition – after all, that’s what’s demanded given the financial outlay at the club and the long-term target they’ve sought.
For a long time, PSG have been criticised for being missing in action when it comes to the most critical parts of the campaign and fighting for European honours; no matter the presence of Neymar, of Kylian Mbappé or even of Lionel Messi, they rarely, truly threatened to be conquerors of Europe.
And perhaps a part of that stems from a lack of competition domestically. It has been pointed out, not just with PSG but in previous years with Bayern Munich and their Bundesliga dominance too, that being so far ahead in league terms by the mid point of the season can often mean they are undercooked in competitive terms when they suddenly must step up again, against Europe’s finest.
Perhaps there’s merit to that theory.
And that means it’s not just PSG’s Champions League short-term future at stake across the coming weeks, but also their longer-term prospects, because while they are indeed already seven points clear at the top of Ligue 1, there’s a bigger prize available, one which brings with it historical value as much as sporting, one which nobody has yet achieved in the national top flight.
That is, to go the entire season unbeaten.
And, we could go further – PSG haven’t yet proven themselves in another regard, perhaps again by way of the title being wrapped up so early sometimes that results simply…trail off. Consider this: despite winning ten of the last 12 league titles in France, such dominance has not come with the title of being the nation’s hardest to beat side, ever.
That distinction currently belongs to Nantes, who in 1994/95 – the vintage of Claude Makélélé and Christian Karembeu, of Patrice Loko and Nicolas Ouédec – blew away the competition to win the title, ten points clear of Lyon and losing just a single fixture all season long.
So far, the best that PSG have managed is two defeats in a single campaign. They have equalled that Nantes side in other ways, of course; their long-held record of 32 matches unbeaten from the start of a campaign was matched by PSG in 15/16, while PSG also went 36 unbeaten in the league between 2015 and 2016. That still stands as a league record itself.
But for all the frontiers PSG have crossed, perhaps this one – an invincible domestic campaign – is the most notable one they’ve yet to achieve.
For, if they can truly go the distance mentally as much as technically and tactically, would Luis Enrique’s team then not be also able to replicate that resilience in Europe? If the team have something to fight for all year long, a genuine accolade to keep striving for every time they step on the pitch, would that not eliminate the so-called issue of non-competitiveness which blights them in the latter stages of Europe?
This is a question which can only be answered a single game at a time, and even then only if PSG do lift themselves into the top 24 with their last two fixtures in the league phase. And there’s even an argument in the opposite direction: if PSG go out of Europe at this point, doubling down on becoming France’s best side ever is not just a way to get over the disappointment, but to still ensure this campaign can be seen as a resounding success, not in the way they expected perhaps, but in a way which can never, ever be beaten.
Right now, they at least have the opportunity to do it either way, unbeaten through 17 at the halfway stage.
Sometimes, all the very finest sides need is exactly that: opportunity. For PSG to prove they remain one of the finest, after the exits of not just Mbappé but of Manuel Ugarte and Carlos Soler, of Marco Verratti and Leandro Paredes…of Neymar and Messi…this would be the way to do it. Find a way in Europe. Get into the knockouts, and then impact there. And maybe the key to unlock that particular door at last is to not be obsessed by Champions League success, but to instead remain entirely focused on domestic dominance. What follows from that might be more historic than anything they’ve already done.
(Cover image from IMAGO)
You can follow every game from Ligue 1 with FotMob this season – featuring deep stats coverage, xG, and player ratings. Download the free app here.