Still reeling from their heavy loss to tournament favourites Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain will have to re-group as they resume league action by welcoming a determined Lille side to the Parc des Princes.
Laurent Blanc's men were given a nearly impossible task after losing their Champions League quarter-finals first let 3-1 to the Blaugrana and were not surprisingly outclassed at the Camp Nou courtesy of a brace from Neymar. With their European ambitions now over for yet another season, their domestic crown does not look to be an absolute certainty as they will have to do without talismanic attacker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, with the big Swede serving a ban due to his controversial comments earlier this month.
Naturally, Lille coach Rene Girard, who has no real injury concerns, would certainly like to take advantage of the bruised confidence of Les Parisiens. Nonetheless, he naturally has warned his squad to be wary of the hosts as they still have enough quality to cause them trouble.
PSG are still behind Lyon on goal difference, but do have a vital game in hand
"[Although] they got eliminated [from the Champions League], few teams [can] beat Barca. They lost against a great squad," he noted in his pre-match press conference.
"PSG remains a formidable team and the quality of the players is there, [and] we have to be careful because a wounded animal is always dangerous."
Edinson Cavani expresses his frustration during the loss to Barcelona earlier this week
.jpg?q=75&w=634)
Lille, led from the back by Nigerian star goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama, have been pretty solid as of late. Les Dogues (The Great Danes) have just lost one out of their last five matches and as Blanc indicated in his conference prior to today's game, they are indeed ready to rock-and-roll after not exerting themselves mid-week:
L.Blanc "Le gros avantage de @losclive demain c'est la fraîcheur physique qu'ils ont par rapport à nous." #PSGLOSC
— PSG Officiel (@PSG_inside) April 24, 2015
"The big advantage Lille have tomorrow is the fact that they will be fresher physically than us"
He is also keen on putting the Champions League loss to the Blaugrana firmly behind them as they turn their attention to their other objectives:
L.Blanc "Nous voulons réaliser le triplé Coupes-Championnat cette saison, nous sommes motivés pour." #PSGLOSC
— PSG Officiel (@PSG_inside) April 24, 2015
"We want to win the domestic treble this season...and we are [still] motivated for this"
In addition to Ibrahimovic, Blanc will also have to make do without Thiago Silva. The Brazilian centre-back and current captain suffered an injury earlier this month against Barcelona, but there is better news surrounding his colleague who also happens to share a same first name:
L.Blanc "Thiago Motta sera dans le groupe pour jouer face à @losclive demain." #PSGLOSC
— PSG Officiel (@PSG_inside) April 24, 2015
"Thiago Motta will be in the team to play against Lille tomorrow"
After a disappointing past few weeks, PSG will be keen on getting back on track in front of their home crowd today. Will Lille be able to stop them as they seek on maintaining their Ligue 1 crown?
Make sure you do not miss out on the last few weeks of Ligue 1. Ensure you bookmark LiveSoccerTV.com's Multi-Platform Broadcast Guide to stay on top of your favourite team's last few games.
Match details, result and original broadcast info
This match has ended. Below are the original Live broadcast details for this match.
Live TV coverage and streaming in United States
Live TV coverage and streaming in United States
Follow the game on-the-go
Download our iOS and Android apps to follow soccer on-the-go. It comes packed with features - live scores, fixtures, results, tables, line-ups, stats, TV schedule and much more! Sorry, no live streaming within the app.
