Let’s be honest, whatever happens this Sunday afternoon (5:30 p.m. French time) on the pitch of Stadium 974 in Doha, the 2024 Champions Trophy will be remembered – if it stays there – as the epilogue of a long series of controversies. Firstly because the winner of the 2024 trophy will be crowned in 2025, just a few days after kissing under the mistletoe and thinking of ending the late year for good. Then, because this new vintage suffers from a certain lack of legitimacy: if PSG achieved the championship cup double last season, Monaco owes its presence in Qatar only to its status as runner-up in Ligue 1. Finally and above all, the place chosen to organize the meeting: although France has gotten into the habit in recent years of relocating its little party abroad – global warming-what? –, the choice made this year on the emirate does not fail to raise eyebrows, between accusations of conflict of interest for Nasser al-Khelaïfi and skepticism around the omnipotence of Qatar over French football. Despite this strange context, the meeting between two heavyweights from France has several major sporting issues, on the Riviera side almost as much as on the Ile-de-France side.
At PSG, avoid the snub
Accustomed to flying there every January, Parisians usually take advantage of their Qatari stay to unwind after the holidays under the Middle Eastern sun. But this year, it was in order to add a line to their list of achievements that the players from the capital took up residence upon their arrival on the Doha tarmac. The 2024 Champions Trophy will be the first official match played “ at home » by the Parisian club, which has flown the Qatari flag since 2011 and its acquisition by QSI. Present during the team’s first training session upon leaving the plane, President al-Khelaïfi will most likely have taken care to add to his wishes a reminder of the importance of such a meeting for the board Parisian, as well as the disastrous consequences in terms of image of a possible snub against Monaco.
It would be less serious, on the other hand, for the cabinet of the Parc des Princes, already stocked with 10 of the last 11 Champions Trophies, which Marquinhos’ partners now seem to have difficulty celebrating with dignity. However, everything is at stake for Paris, and its coach Luis Enrique knows it well. With a hegemony that has become banal, the volley of green wood will necessarily contrast in the event of defeat, as was the case with Mauricio Pochettino for one of the rare TDCs left on the road by PSG against Lille in August 2021 in Tel-Aviv, after which some did not fail to criticize the Argentine coach. But if PSG is starting to get used to accepting criticism, it is precisely to fight its old European demons that this first shock of the year proves to be an important test with a view to achieving its 2025 objectives. Far from being assured of continuing the adventure in the Champions League, Paris will have to be ready – and quickly – because Manchester City (January 22) and Stuttgart (January 29) are already looming on the horizon to continue to dreaming of the haircut with big ears. Before that, offering the Champions Trophy as an aperitif to Emir Tamim ben Hamad Al Thani on his land could allow Paris to launch its year peacefully.
Dust the trophy cabinet on the Rock
For Monaco as for all successive opponents of PSG during the Champions Trophy, the situation is simple: take advantage of a possible failure of the French champions after the holidays to try to complete a collection of titles which is struggling to grow. recently on the Côte d’Azur. The last Monegasque title dates back eight years ago with the coronation of champion in 2017, and we very much doubt that the Gamper trophy won by ASM this summer against Barça will not be enough to delight the red and white supporters, any more than to that of Dimitri Rybolovlev, who no longer counts the money injected since his takeover of the club in 2011. A coronation would therefore be welcome in the Principality, especially since Monaco has already faced two times – for as many defeats – the Parisians during this same Trophy, in 2017 and 2018. A dynamic to be reversed from this Sunday, and we say to ourselves that there is a chance to play for the Monegasques as PSG sometimes seems takeable this season: this was already the case during their advanced meeting in Ligue 1 on December 18 (2-4), during which Monaco naively fell to Louis-II.
Naive, Monegasque players often are this season against the “big guys” in the championship, as evidenced by the four small points collected against the top 6 in Ligue 1 (1 victory, 1 draw and 3 defeats). This year, Adi Hütter will have to instill more character into his team during the big matches, because the European meetings (Aston Villa and Inter Milan) are approaching for Monaco, also not guaranteed to see the month of February in C1. With this in mind, stealing the trophy from PSG this Sunday appears to be the ideal opportunity for ASM to calmly prepare for the continental clashes to come… and to further expand its own collection of trinkets.
Live: PSG-Monaco (0-0)
