On Wednesday, Paris Saint-Germain played their final Champions League group stage match against Newcastle (1-1. Marquinhos, defender and captain of the Parisian team, spoke to PSG TV after the match.
Marquinhos: “Every team has its own philosophy and mentality.”
“We wanted to win to qualify for the top eight; that was our objective today. We played the best match we could, with intensity, we created chances, but unfortunately, they capitalized on their strengths: counter-attacks, free kicks, long balls… And that’s it, every team has its own philosophy and mentality.
Unfortunately, we didn’t get the result we wanted, but we qualified, and that’s the positive takeaway from the evening.” Now, we’re going to play with the cards we’ve been dealt, which means fighting every match like it’s a final, just like we did last year.
Marquinhos: “We’ll have to fight as if it were our last match of the season.”
“We’re only going to play finals, only important matches. We’ve been able to get almost all our players back; Achraf is back, Ibrahim too. Now we have to move forward, work harder and harder, and gain confidence as a team, like we did last year, so we can achieve our goals for the second half of the season.
This will give us rhythm, more matches to play in, and build confidence. We have to take it one step at a time and not look too far ahead. We know the road is very, very long and very difficult. In every match, we’ll have to fight as if it were our last match of the season.”
A draw for PSG, who had the match firmly in hand, but failed to extend their lead after Newcastle’s equalizer. A disappointing result for the Parisian club, who could have qualified directly for the Round of 16 and thus benefited from a longer rest period. As last season, they will have to play a Round of 32 match, perhaps against a tough opponent.
Now they must patiently await the draws and, above all, hope for better momentum as they approach the knockout stages of this Champions League. Recent results are not reassuring and suggest that anything could happen against any opponent in this competition, of which they are the defending champions.
