Paris Saint-Germain manager Christophe Galtier was left disappointed after his side were knocked out of the UEFA Champions League in the Round of 16 by six-time winners and German champions Bayern Munich on Wednesday.
The Parisians were defeated 2-0 at the Allianz Arena thanks to second-half goals from their former striker Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting and German forward Serge Gnabry. However, a lone goal from PSG academy graduate Kinglsey Coman in the first leg three weeks ago helped the Bavarians to a 3-0 aggregate win to progress to the quarterfinals.
⌛️ Paris Saint-Germain lose in Munich.#FCBPSG pic.twitter.com/vHEsUTOKdv
— Paris Saint-Germain (@PSG_English) March 8, 2023
Galtier, who termed the performance of his players “weak”, blamed the defeat over the two legs on the series of injuries that have plagued his team in recent weeks, with the most recent being a lengthy ankle injury to Brazilian talisman Neymar Jr.
“This isn’t about a deficit in the team. This is the story of a very particular season. Very physically charged for my players. These were two games in which we had many important players absent,” the former OGC Nice head coach said.
“As for tonight, even though we played a very good first half, we had our good moments but weren’t able to score. We had the early exit of Marquinhos, our captain, and then the exit of Nordi Mukiele.
“[Presnel] Kimpembe’s absence forced us to play with a young player, 17 years old [El Chadaille] Bitshiabu, and our performance during the two games was very weak,” Galtier added.
The 56-year-old manager further assured the fans of their focus on emerging as French champions this season as they top Ligue 1 with 63 points, eight ahead of Marseille in second.
“We will make sure we win the French championship. I am not trying to minimise things but the Ligue 1 is a champions title.”
“We have many games ahead and we will recover many of our injured players. We have two players – Neymar and Kimpembe – who will effectively be out of competition until the end of the season and I will let the fans decide if it’s a failure at the end the season if we end up only with the French championship,” the PSG coach concluded.
The ten-time French champions have come under scrutiny once again as their huge investments in players are not evident in European tournaments. They are yet to win the Champions League and have been knocked out of the competition in the Round of 16 stage in five of the last seven seasons.
