Liverpool striker Sadio Mané has rubbished suggestions Ligue 1 is too easy for Paris Saint-Germain.
After winning the French treble last season, PSG are currently 15 points clear at the top of the league having won all of their first 14 matches of the season.
The lack of a proper domestic challenge has led many to suggest that Les Parisiens suffer on the European stage as a result but Mané – whose side travel to the Parc des Princes for Wednesday’s crunch Champions League clash – does not agree.
“I think that sometimes you, the French, speak too negatively of Ligue 1, like: ‘It is too easy for PSG.’ I do not agree,” he told reporters.
“I think that the PSG players have put together an exceptional series of victories.
“People do not realise to what extent players are under pressure: a single draw, and people are all over you. I insist: I respect the PSG players a lot.”
[embedded content]
Chelsea’s Eden Hazard holds the opposite view, however.
“In terms of the level of Ligue 1, PSG walk it each weekend,” Hazard told Canal Football Club earlier this week.
“When they play in the Champions’ League, they think maybe that it will be easy. But I think that they struggle.
“I don’t like to judge Ligue 1 but it is true that, when I see PSG, yes it seems too easy.”
And a couple of years ago, former PSG forward Ezequiel Lavezzi was equally critical of the French top flight.
“I did not like the Ligue 1. I do not find it motivating. That is the truth,” Lavezzi told L’Equipe.
“PSG are so strong compared to the other teams. I do not really take pleasure in matches. Italy is different, you have eight big matches in a season but in France it is two.”
Lavezzi of course left PSG in 2016 in search of a challenge by moving to the Chinese Super League *rolls eyes*
But it looks like Mané is on his own with this one.
Be the first to comment