PARIS — Paris Saint-Germain boss Laurent Blanc says he has already told his players not to underestimate the challenge of Manchester City.
City have been out of form in the Premier League — losing four of their last eight Premier League games — and the club have regularly underachieved in the Champions League where they reached the quarterfinals for the first time in their history this season beating Dynamo Kiev in the previous round.
PSG meanwhile are in the last eight for the fourth consecutive season and Blanc believes that their extra experience could work in his side’s favour.
“At such a level in the competition the details are very important. The experiences we have gathered in recent years might be a positive for us,” he told a news conference. “We were happy to avoid playing the two ogres of European football, Barcelona and Bayern Munich, and you can add a third one into that: Real Madrid.
“People have said this is an easy draw for us; I have the impression that people think it’s an easy draw. But I have seen so much of it that I gave them a speech yesterday saying, ‘Don’t listen to them, do not believe it, they know nothing about football.’
“They have a great project there too, they have some great quality players on the pitch, it’s similar to Paris, they have great players in every line. They have a quality team with individual players who can make the difference. We’re preparing ourselves for two very difficult games.”
Blanc confirmed that PSG will be without midfielders Marco Verratti and Javier Pastore, but former United winger Angel Di Maria is set to return.
City have their own injury concerns, although they had the bonus of Kevin De Bruyne playing his first since January at the weekend after recovering from knee ligament damage, and the Belgium international is set to start at the Parc des Princes.
“De Bruyne is a quality player, we’re well aware of that, he can play in different positions; he’s an attacking player who provides assists,” Blanc added. “He’s back from injury now, he was injured for quite a while, we’ll need to pay attention to him and [Sergio] Aguero. They have players who can make the difference in any moment and De Bruyne is one of them.”
PSG overcame current Premier League champions Chelsea in the previous round but Blanc is expecting a different type of game.
“We won’t say that it suits us because Manchester City want to play like us,” he added. “No, they have the same game philosophy as us. Maybe before Chelsea leave ball possession to you because they have a very different game philosophy. But Manchester City want to control the game and have ball possession and we are the same so they have the same qualities and faults as us.
“There will want a battle for ball possession like us but not possession for the sake of it, it will be an intense game. Both teams are strong attacking.”