MADRID, 25 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Real Madrid Women will face this Wednesday at the Estadio Alfredo di Stéfano (6:45 p.m.) their first big test of the season with a visit to French Paris Saint-Germain, one of their great rivals in their Champions League group.
The Madrid team got off to a good start for the second consecutive year in the top continental competition by beating the theoretical ‘cinderella’, the Albanian KFF Vllaznia, 0-2, and now they will have a much more demanding second duel that could be key to their desire to qualify for the quarter-finals again.
Framed in the ‘group of death’ along with PSG, the Champions League semi-finalist for the last two seasons, and the English team Chelsea, Alberto Toril’s team knows that they have to get the three points, in addition to demonstrating their competitive leap compared to last season , it would be a plus to dream of being among the top eight again.
Real Madrid already had to deal with the Parisian team last year, adding two defeats, a very tough one in Paris (4-0) and a tighter one in Madrid (0-2), still with David Aznar as coach. Now, he will touch Alberto Toril, whose hand has been noticed and has improved the competitiveness of a team that hopes to demonstrate his greater experience and quality.
The madridistas, who in the summer were already able to get rid of another level team like Manchester City in the first qualifying round, come to this match after adding their first setback of the season with a two-goal draw against Levante UD, a meeting where he could not count on a key player like Caroline Weir, suffering from an overload, and where he rotated other starting theoreticians like Sandie Toletti and, above all, the winger Athenea del Castillo.
The Scottish midfielder is still ‘touched’, as confirmed by Alberto Toril in the preview, and is a doubt for this match, while the Cantabrian winger, who will have a good test to demonstrate her current state of form. Esther González, inspired in front of goal, will be the other weapon in attack.
The defense, after conceding more than one goal for the first time this season, will also have to score at its best level to stop the offense of a PSG that is diminished in that area due to the injury of what is surely its star, Marie- Antoinette Katoto.
The French team did not start their career in this Champions League in the best way, where they already noticed the absence of the forward and fell to Chelsea 0-1 at the Parc des Princes. The Dutch Lieke Martens, formerly of FC Barcelona, ??one of their great reinforcements for this season, did not play this clash either, but who has recovered for this match to help a PSG that has had a lot of time to prepare it since it did not have a day of its league , where he is behind Olympique de Lyon.
PSG coach, Gérard Prêcheur, recognized that Real Madrid “is a very good team, very technical.” “We know Spanish football, its game philosophy, whether it’s Spain, Real Madrid or Barça. It’s a technical team, but also tactically strong and I found it very interesting at a tactical level, due to the quality of its team,” he admitted in the previous press conference.
The technician warned that they will have to “raise” their level to be able to “respond” to the growth of their rival. “It is a club that is progressing a lot, that is beginning to have experience of important matches because it has been participating in the Champions League for two years,” he said.
