The day after their championship victory against Saint-Étienne, the Parisians benefited from a day of rest this Monday. They start the week this Tuesday with training at 11 a.m. before eight new very busy days: Espaly this Wednesday in the round of 16 of the Coupe de France at 9 p.m., Lens in L 1 this Saturday and Manchester City in the Champions League on Wednesday next, January 22.
At the end of the meeting against the Greens, no injuries were to be deplored. In Clermont-Ferrand in the Cup, Luis Enrique will continue his careful mix of playing time. Given the players on the bench on Sunday, he should field a very competitive team with the expected starts of Désiré Doué, João Neves and Vitinha. Certain elements could come together, like Senny Mayulu, performing against ASSE.
The two main questions revolve around goaltender choice and a potential return. Luis Enrique might want to give Gianluigi Donnarumma a break to give Matvey Safonov some playing time or offer a first start this season to Arnau Tenas, Olympic champion with Spain last August. The other question concerns the presence or not of Presnel Kimpembe in the group and if so, possibly on the pitch at the Marcel-Michelin stadium.
The defender has only been included once this season, on November 25 for the trip to Munich in the Champions League. A sort of reward to salute his efforts to reintegrate into collective sessions. But Luis Enrique has repeated it several times: he does not yet see any horizon to give him playing time. Espaly looks like a good opportunity to revive the 2018 world champion, especially if the score is acquired on time In the Titi camp, optimism did not prevail on this subject in recent hours while the Spanish coach preferred to call up young Axel Tape (17 years old) on Sunday to complete his group against the Greens.
