PSG travels to Dortmund this Wednesday in the semi-final first leg of the Champions League (9 p.m. on RMC Sport 1). A shock that Daniel Riolo approaches with serenity, as he explained in Apolline Matin on RMC.
PSG is launching towards the end of the most exciting season in its recent history. Maybe just its history. At the dawn of May, the capital club is dreaming more than ever of an incredible quadruple. After winning the Champions Trophy and Ligue 1, Luis Enrique’s team, which will face OL in the final of the Coupe de France (May 25 in Villeneuve-d’Ascq), is in the semi-finals of the League champions. The Parisians will meet in the Dortmund den this Wednesday (9 p.m. on RMC Sport 1), for a first leg which promises to be electric, before the return next Tuesday at the Parc des Princes. A shock that Daniel Riolo approaches with serenity.
“The last two years have been tough”
“There is no obligation to win this (Wednesday) evening to qualify in a week, recalled the member of After Foot in Apolline Matin on RMC. There are a lot of results which will give Parisians confidence: a draw, obviously a victory But I want to tell you that even if PSG were to lose by a goal, I believe that the confidence that inhabits the club at the moment would remain strong in view of the match. return. This PSG has built a collective strength, which seems to support almost everyone in this team. And even the supporters. It’s very rare.
“The last two years have been tough for PSG fans. We had the feeling that everything depended on one or two stars, that there was no team, and that going beyond the eighth in the final, it had become an achievement because there was this force of habit of taking the blow to the back of the head at the time of the eighth, that there would be a referee’s decision or a failing mentality. There would always be something that would go wrong This year, it wasn’t always easy in the group stage, but behind it, there was this qualification against Barça. This collective force which came through. Implementation.”
“A nice draw” for PSG
On the other hand, it is difficult to predict what face Edin Terzic’s players will display, on alternating current this season: “German journalists have reminded us, you never know what match this Borussia Dortmund will offer. What he did during of the quarter-final return against Atlético de Madrid (4-2), no one expected it. A huge performance, a pressure over ninety minutes, they stifled them. And frankly, to do that. ‘Atlético de Madrid is very rare.’
“So yes, I want to tell myself that the planets are aligned for PSG and that playing Dortmund in the semi-final is like a gift, because usually in the semi-final, we play a big name, we play Manchester City, continued Daniel Riolo But let’s remember that luck can sometimes exist Because in 2020, the year of Covid with this famous final 8, PSG played RB Leipzig, who did not. Wasn’t a European monster, and it went very well but in one match (3-0), there’s the back and forth, indeed, it’s not a European monster. I wouldn’t venture to say that Paris is the favorite, but that it’s rather a nice draw.”
