Despite the UEFA Champions League match against Club Brugge clearly not having any real significance considering Paris Saint-Germain was already safe in second place in Group A behind Manchester City regardless of the outcome of the match against the Belgian club, PSG produced the excellent form – that had been sorely lacking in the previous few games in the Ligue 1 and the Champions League – to trounce their Belgian counterparts.
This was due primarily to the fact that, with the current form that the capital club had been locked into of late, they could ill afford to make light of the night’s encounter with Club Brugge, after having lost to Manchester City, not to mention ending up with disappointing draws against OGC Nice and RC Lens.
Following the heartening 4-1 win over Club Brugge, Kylian Mbappé spoke to Canal Plus, where he stated unequivocally that the squad wasn’t going to pull any punches despite having already qualified for the knockout stages.
“There was no stake, but the Champions League remains the Champions League. We took this game seriously. We wanted to win in front of our audience,” Mbappé said.
“We wanted to warm up our audience a little bit, and that’s what we did. We had a complete performance, and it was much better. Now we can still improve, but today we have taken a small step forward.”
Mbappé then summarized their performance in a match that saw himself and Lionel Messi score two goals.
“We have to manage low times because we have low times which are perhaps a little too low. We have a management of our matches which is not always adequate with high-level matches. But I also think that adaptation was needed for new players.”
“We picked up players along the way, players who did not arrive in the same state of form, so that also plays a role. There, we have two and a half months before the next round of 16 to work and to be ready for the important deadlines that arrive.”
Way to go, champ!