He real Madrid He arrives in Lausanne as a favorite, but carrying a debt from 10 years ago. In 2016, the ‘Titis’ (colloquial nickname that comes from petitesmall in French) of PSG They were eliminated in these same semifinals (3-1) with a generation of scandal, made up of Nkunku, Odsonne Édouard, Augustin, Ballo-Touré and Ikonéamong others.
The first goal was scored by Madrid through an own goal. Achraf Hakimi deflected an Édouard cross into his own net. Borja Mayoral He equalized with a penalty, but PSG ended up sentencing. On the white bench was Santiago Solari, who years later would coach the Bernabéu first team. In the goal, Luca Zidaneson of Zinedine, who at that time was the first team coach. That PSG reached the final but lost to Chelsea (1-2). And Achraf, who scored an own goal that night, is today a starter and reference for the Parisian first team.
Borja Mayoral in the 2016 duel.REALMADRID.COM
The team currently led by Jean-François Vulliez —Bradley Barcola’s trainer at Lyon—does not deceive the numbers in the league phase, as he finished thirteenth. But that doesn’t reflect what he has done when it has mattered. At home he did not lose to the Atalantahe Bayern nor the Tottenham. In the knockout phase he dispatched Minsk Dynamo (4-0), at HJK Helsinki (6-1) and closed the quarters with a 0-1 visit to Villarreal. It is a team that grows in big games, exactly like the first team that serves as a mirror to them: the youngest PSG to win the Champions League in history.
The greatest threat is collective. 28 goals divided between 11 different scorerswith 28 players used throughout the campaign. Ayari and Mounguengue They lead with five goals each – both already training with the professionals thanks to the Espoirs group, the structure that replaced the reserve team to build a direct bridge with the first team. The captain Cordier and Lucea They have completed the 792 minutes of competition. And the youngest of the group is David Boly, born in 2009: 16 years and 784 minutes in the Youth League. As if that were not enough, 95% of the inmates of the Poissy Campus passed the selectivity the last two seasons.
Those of Luis Enrique as inspiration
The locker room has no complexes regarding the white shield. “We are not going to let that name intimidate us”Lucea warned this week. Cordier, with 19 games in the competition and already in PSG’s all-time top 5 in the Youth League, specifies the challenge: “The match against Madrid is very demanding, both on a technical and physical level; we will have to be strong to beat them”.
Ly appeals to the first team as a mirror: “What makes us strong, and what has allowed us to reach the semi-finals, is our state of mind and our collective. We are lucky to be able to be inspired by the journey of the first team, and we want to follow in their footsteps”. Mounguengue already says it: “If we are here it is thanks to our seriousness and determination. We play to win and we all want to mark the history of the Club.” Today, a new duel for a place in Monday’s final.