Many of them claim the paternity of the bluff. Poker, the City of Fear, nuclear weapon holders. It surely belongs to them in equal measure, just as it is part of sporting folklore at the approach of major deadlines. Novak Djokovic has just won the Australian Open fatalistically through the first week of the tournament with a supposedly insurmountable thigh injury. At PSG, Christophe Galtier swore a handful of days ago that Kylian Mbappé had no chance of being on the scoresheet against Bayern Munich, in the knockout stages of the Champions League.
What Julian Nagelsmann never believed in. Youth is not naivety. “I don’t think he will miss the match,” said the Bayern Munich coach. I expect him to play. I don’t know what he has. The statement on the PSG website is quite vague [lésion de la cuisse gauche au niveau du biceps fémoral et durée d’indisponibilité estimée à trois semaines]. I can’t imagine he’s missing this game. »
Mbappé fit… to train
It must be said that football and more particularly the Champions League are full of bluffs around bogus absences of major players. In 2014, Diego Simeone had announced Diego Costa’s package at least 36 times before the final against Real Madrid while he was shooting at the placenta of a horse, before lining him up for Lisbon. Maneuver not really useful: the Spanish international was out after nine minutes. Little wink of history, Diego Costa suffered from the same disease as our national Kyks.
The more time goes by, the more the scenario imagined by the German has a chance of coming true. And the less Christophe Galtier has cards in hand to make people believe the opposite. On Sunday, Kylian Mbappé trained individually, which Galette imagined impossible. It is this precise point which seems to have turned the wind. “Following discussions with the doctor and the sports management, we made the decision that Kylian, from the moment he felt good, could train. »
This explains why he took part in collective training on Monday. His presence on the score sheet is however not guaranteed, tries to convince the Parisian coach. “We will review tomorrow morning. The first questions will be asked to Kylian on his feelings, how he can project himself into the match. Kylian has done an amazing job to be available but at the moment I don’t know [s’il sera sur la feuille de match]. »
The night Messi came off the bench to eliminate Paris
This great cinema is reminiscent of another play played on the Barcelona side, ten years earlier, by the Catalan staff and Lionel Messi, at the dawn of the Champions League quarter-final second leg against PSG, at the Camp Nou. We were there, and we remember that the soap opera had kept us busy. This is what we wrote then word for word:
“Since the end of the first leg at the Parc des Princes, the condition of Lionel Messi’s thigh has become the best kept secret in Catalonia after the end date of the Sagrada Familia. But it’s not for lack of trying. On Tuesday, club TV showed a smiling Argentine taking part in a little toro during afternoon training, before conveniently cutting the broadcast just when the serious things were about to begin. Truly buried in questions on the subject, Jordi Roura, still in charge of the pre-match conferences despite the return of Vilanova, did his best to cover his tracks: “How are the injured (Adriano, Pedro, Messi, editor’s note)? Their feelings are good. Are they going to play? There are still two training sessions to decide. We will also have to see the medical report before making a decision.
The Argentinian started on the bench but entered the hour mark when his team was virtually eliminated. Rarely has an entry into play pushed back a defensive line so quickly just with a look, while the Camp Nou, desperate, started to believe it all of a sudden. Ten minutes later, Pedro became the executioner of Paris SG on an action launched by the Argentinian, yet on one leg.
What about the total bluff? Include the recovering player on the score sheet by putting him on the bench to threaten the opponent with a providential entry, without necessarily using him. Galtier is not a fan of the idea. “Will he be there to scare the Germans? No, if he is on the match sheet it will be to play. How long ? I don’t know. But he will not be there to make an appearance. “On the verge of saying that he will be there at all, all the same.