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PSG ultras give Real Madrid players rude awakening at Paris hotel

Around 50 hardcore PSG supporters let off fire crackers and chanted songs at 2am outside the Paris hotel where Real Madrid players were trying to sleep before their big clash in the Champions League on Tuesday night.

Published: 6 March 2018 15:15 CET
PSG ultras give Real Madrid players rude awakening at Paris hotel
Photo: AFP

Some PSG fans will clearly do whatever it takes to give their team a chance of overturning a 3-1 deficit against Real Madrid at the Parc des Princes on Tuesday night.

In the middle of night on Monday as Real Madrid's players slept in their beds at the Hotel du Collectioneur in the 8th arrondissement in the heart of Paris, around 50 hardcore ultras turned up intent on making a racket.

Just before 2am they began letting off fire crackers, lighting flares and chanting songs in order to disturb the sleep of Real's players on the eve of their Champions League last 16 tie against PSG.

According to the Real Madrid camp the disturbance lasted around 30 minutes until police intervened.

 

 

One witness said it began with chanting and there were two enormous detonations of firecrackers. And then for another 10 minutes the sound of firecrackers could be heard in the area. 

When police turned up the ultras fled in all directions. Reports in Le Parisien newspaper said two were arrested.

According to Spanish newspaper Marca, Real Madrid bosses were left furious by the disturbance and there were suggestions they believed that the PSG might have been behind it.

They are also concerned about the welcome Real Madrid's players will get on their way to the stadium for Tuesday night's match.

Whether the player's lack of sleep will have any impact on the match remains to be seen, but PSG's players believe they can mount a historic comeback even without their star player Neymar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

FOOTBALL

OPINION: Mbappé’s title, but PSG need to breathe new life into Qatari project

After being the star of France's 2018 World Cup triumph, Kylian Mbappé has been the standout player for Paris Saint-Germain in a Ligue 1 title-winning campaign that has been slightly marred by the manner in which they limped over the line.

Published: 22 April 2019 13:05 CEST
OPINION: Mbappé's title, but PSG need to breathe new life into Qatari project
Photos AFP

PSG finally wrapped up the title on Sunday after second-placed Lille failed to beat Toulouse, having not won any of their previous three games when the opportunity to confirm a sixth French crown in seven seasons was there.

The Qatari-owned club can still make it a domestic double, with the French Cup final to come against Rennes next weekend, yet this will not be remembered as a vintage year.

While Neymar once again went missing due to injury at the crucial point, Edinson Cavani has struggled with fitness too, and coach Thomas Tuchel has regularly lashed out at the lack of depth in his squad.

The 5-1 capitulation at Lille a week ago was the worst league result for PSG since Qatar Sports Investments bought the club in 2011, and the first time they had let in five in a league game since 2000.

A record-breaking 14-match winning run with which they started the season now seems like a long time ago, the latest Champions League failure clouding Tuchel's first campaign in charge.

Mbappé, at least, has been a constant, revelling in his status as a World Cup winner and hardly ever being rested. He only turned 20 in December, but has now won three Ligue 1 titles in a row.

Mbappé has 36 goals in 40 games this season, with 30 in the league. And, frighteningly, his team-mate Daniel Alves told RMC recently that “he doesn't realise how good he is, he can go much further”.

He is also not used to losing, and may have upset some of his teammates with his assessment of last week's defeat at Lille. “We played like beginners,” he said.

Hollow ring

To be fair, they have usually been exceptional domestically. However, the problem is that as long as they keep failing in the Champions League, domestic success for a club backed by a Gulf state will continue to ring hollow.

The title has effectively been in the bag for some time, but their season has been winding down ever since their exit against Manchester United in the last 16.

That, combined with being knocked out in the League Cup quarter-finals, means Tuchel in his first season has actually done worse than Unai Emery, his unloved predecessor.

Paris Saint-Germain coach Thomas Tuchel has actually done worse than his predecessor, Unai Emery
However, according to sports daily L'Equipe, Tuchel has agreed to extend his contract to 2021. Thoughts have already turned to the future, with new signings needed at the Parc des Princes.

The costly Neymar experiment cannot be said to have succeeded until he stays fit for the games that matter, and there will always be speculation about his future.

“We have a contract, we're not even halfway through that contract,” Neymar's father pointed out to RMC Sport.

Time for a clear-out? 

Mbappé is the one man they really cannot afford to lose, but is it time for a clear-out elsewhere?

Some of the excitement of the early part of the decade has gone, replaced with a staleness. The days of Thiago Silva, Edinson Cavani and Marco Verratti are maybe ending.

Youri Djorkaeff, a World Cup winner for France and a PSG star in the 1990s, offers a frank assessment, suggesting real change is needed higher up.

“If you're not great in every compartment, from the bus driver to the girls who clean the shirts, you will go nowhere,” he told Ligue 1 Podcast, 'Le Beau Jeu'.

“Paris Saint-Germain, after many years without success, have to rebuild everything, restart from scratch, because the foundations are not good. You cannot expect to one day win the Champions League without these foundations.”

The Qatar project needs a breath of fresh air, and all eyes will be on president Nasser al-Khelaifi and sporting director Antero Henrique.

UEFA's Financial Fair Play rules remain a problem, though, with PSG said to have a hole of around 100 million euros and the need to present a balanced budget by the end of June. The next few months will be interesting.

By Andy Scott/AFP

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