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Project Paris is not cheap for Qatar Sports Investments. At last count, owners of Paris Saint-Germain had spent more than £ 820million in transfer fees, recruited some of the world’s most prominent players and coaches, and suffered nothing but Champions League failures each. season since purchasing the club in 2011..
But after scoring a 3-0 semi-final victory over RB Leipzig on Tuesday, when superstar strikers Neymar and Kylian Mbappe both seized the opportunity with outstanding performances, PSG are now only 90 minutes away. of fulfilling the dream of its ambitious and extremely wealthy owners of winning the Champions League and ensuring that all the investment and heartache (and perhaps even the financial sanctions for fair play inflicted by UEFA ) are worth it.
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No team has been built to win the Champions League like PSG, not even Manchester City, whose Abu Dhabi owners have spent more than £ 1 billion on players since taking possession of the club in 2008 and have not yet had the satisfaction of reaching the final. City had to overcome fierce competition to achieve success in England before they even thought of the Champions League, but PSG have become so dominant in France since the Qatar takeover – they have won seven of the last eight League titles. 1 – this national engagements have become little more than preparatory competitions for the one that really matters.
PSG did not lavish a world record of 222 million euros on Neymar in 2017 to maintain its grip on French football. Likewise, the € 180million spent on Mbappe was not designed simply to weaken AS Monaco and lessen the club’s biggest threat to Ligue 1 dominance. Every signing and appointment since the change of world for PSG nine years ago was made with success in the Champions League spirit.
David Beckham was briefly signed in 2013 to bolster PSG’s global image following the earlier arrivals of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Thiago Silva, who will bid farewell in Sunday’s final against Bayern Munich or French rival Lyon. Carlo Ancelotti, several Champions League winning coaches, was hired from the start of the Qatari project to make PSG a European power, while players like Angel Di Maria, Edinson Cavani, Marco Verratti and even Gianluigi Buffon were brought in. to give to the team. experience and quality at the highest level.
None of this seemed to make a difference. Year after year, PSG have failed in the Champions League, so much so that the clash with Leipzig was the club’s first semi-final since a loss to AC Milan in 1995.
After the humiliating defeats in the round of 16 second leg to Barcelona (6-1) and Manchester United (3-1), in 2017 and 2019 respectively, it seemed that PSG were cursed for failure. But Thomas Tuchel’s side have now propelled the club to new heights by reaching the final in a season where the odds seemed to be stacked against them like never before.
With the COVID-19 pandemic leading to the cancellation of the Ligue 1 season, PSG arrived in Lisbon for the last eight mini-tournaments after playing just one competitive match since March – the League Cup final victory against Lyon last month. How could they compete with the European elite after being forced to sit down and watch all of their rivals return to action in their own national leagues?
But after beating Atalanta with a dramatic late-night fight in the quarter-finals last week, PSG looked fit, sharp and unbeatable against Leipzig at the Estadio da Luz in Benfica. Neymar and Mbappe have separated Leipzig’s defense on several occasions, with Di Maria also causing havoc in attack for the French champions. At the back, Silva staged a solid PSG defense alongside Marquinhos, whose header put the team on their way to victory before further goals from Di Maria and Juan Bernat.
On this performance, PSG showed that they had the offensive threat of injuring Bayern, if the favorites beat Lyon to reach the final. And if they meet Lyon, PSG will know that they have more than enough to beat the seventh best team in France.
But after so many millions have been injected into the squad, PSG should be exactly where it is: the countdown to a Champions League final.
They will not be popular finalists due to their rise, which fined them € 60m by UEFA in 2014 for breaking the rules of financial fair play, and many will take it as proof that money buys success if they win the European Cup on Sunday. . But PSG and its owners will leave this debate to others. For them, Sunday is an opportunity to plant their flag at the top of a mountain that they still have not managed to climb.
Only one French club – Marseille – has won the Champions League, but PSG are now only 90 minutes away from emulating their big rivals and doing it themselves.
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