Paris St-Germain face an anxious wait to see if Kylian Mbappe will be fit to face Manchester City in Tuesday’s Champions League semi-final second leg.
The striker, 22, missed Saturday’s win over Lens with a calf injury.
Boss Mauricio Pochettino says his top scorer will be monitored in training before a decision is made on his availability for the tie in Manchester.
“We need to assess Kylian,” said the Argentine, whose side trail 2-1 from the first leg.
“Today he is going to start an individual training session and see if he can be with the team. There is still one day and we will see and decide if he is going to be available.”
France international Mbappe has scored 37 goals in 43 appearances in all competitions this season, including eight in 10 Champions League matches.
PSG are looking to reach the final of the Champions League for the second year running, having lost to Bayern Munich in Lisbon last season.
To do so, Pochettino is urging his side to be more clinical than they were in the first leg in Paris.
“We will try to give trust and confidence to the players,” he added.
“The intention is to deprive them of the possession but it is a challenge. They have played six years under the same philosophy with Pep.
“We are trying to get more balance. We need to be ready to suffer in some moments of the game. We need to be clinical and aggressive.”
‘We approach this like any other game’
City will treat the second leg “like another game”, says manager Pep Guardiola as they bid to reach their first Champions League final.
“We arrive in a good moment and I said to the guys, ‘Don’t think too much to win the game’,” said Guardiola.
“It is the same message of the last six months.”
Guardiola won the competition twice with Barcelona but this is the furthest he has got in five attempts with City.
“We approach this game like another game,” he added.
“We start with a small advantage but we have to play to win the game. This is all we are going to do.”
The Premier League leaders have no fresh injury concerns, with Guardiola resting Ilkay Gundogan, Kevin de Bruyne, Riyad Mahrez, Bernardo Silva, Kyle Walker, Ruben Dias and Phil Foden for City’s 2-0 victory over Crystal Palace on Saturday.
City have 57% chance of winning the Champions League
Simon Gleave, head of sports analysis, Nielsen’s Gracenote: “After winning 2-1 in Paris, Manchester City now have well over a 50% chance of lifting their first Champions League trophy at the end of this month.
“The number one team on our Euro Club Index (www.euroclubindex.com) is estimated to have an 87% chance of finishing the job of knocking out Paris St-Germain and a 57% chance of winning the competition.”
City hoping to reach first European final for 51 years – the stats
- Manchester City are unbeaten in all four previous European meetings with PSG (W2 D2), winning their last home match against them in April 2016 in the second leg of that season’s Champions League quarter-final.
- PSG have only faced AC Milan (four times) more often without winning in the Champions League than they have against Man City (three).
- Man City have won their past six Champions League matches and victory here would see them break the record for the longest winning run by an English team in European Cup history. Three other sides have won six in a row: Manchester United (1965-66), Leeds United (1969-70) and Arsenal (2005).
- PSG progressed from their last Champions League knockout tie when losing the first leg, recovering a 2-1 first-leg deficit against Borussia Dortmund in last season’s last 16 to progress 3-2 on aggregate. However, in their major European history, the French side have never progressed after losing the first leg of a knockout tie at home.
- Should Manchester City progress, they would reach their first European final for 51 years, since winning the 1970 Cup Winners’ Cup final against Gornik Zabrze. This would break the record for the longest gap between appearances in European finals, currently held by Sporting Lisbon (41 years between 1964 Cup Winners’ Cup final and 2005 Uefa Cup final).
Article courtesy of BBC Sport
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