PARIS, March 9: After Paris Saint-Germain was eliminated from the Champions League in the last 16 for the fifth time in seven years, Kylian Mbappé was not so surprised.
Reflecting on his team’s 3-0 aggregate loss to Bayern Munich on Wednesday, the France striker bluntly said what was on everyone’s mind: This kind of performance against the biggest European teams is actually the maximum PSG can deliver.
“I said it at the beginning of the season, in the first press conference of the season, that we were going to give our all. And that was our all
That’s the truth,” said Mbappé, who signed a contract extension last year with PSG precisely to win the Champions League title.
But more than five years after joining PSG, the France striker has now played in twice as many World Cup finals as Champions League finals.
“We’re going to ask ourselves the tough questions and go back to our daily routine, which is the league,” Mbappé said. Since cash-rich Qatari investors took over in 2011, PSG has been a dominant force in France but has consistently failed to replicate that success on the European stage despite spending massive amounts on star players.
The only UCL final PSG reached was in 2020’s pandemic-shortened format, when it also lost to Bayern Munich. Mbappe and Neymar who cost a combined ($432 million) were held scoreless in that match. Since playmaker Javier Pastore became PSG’s first marquee signing for 42 million euros in 2011, the club’s net expenditure has risen to more than 1 billion euros. Despite the splurge in spending habits, PSG has failed to build a strong collective with depth on the bench, instead relying on the individual skills of star players. After being knocked out of the French Cup by rival Marseille last month, all PSG can win this season is the French league title. With 12 matches left to play, PSG has an eight-point lead over Marseille.“It’s a big disappointment,” PSG coach Galtier said. “We have to deal with it and accept it. There’s a lot of disappointment in the dressing room. I don’t know if it’s a lesson to be learned, but there’s a lot of frustration.”(AP)
