Paris Saint-Germain coach Thomas Tuchel has confirmed that the club’s Brazilian superstar Neymar Jnr. will start Tuesday’s UEFA Champions League game against German side, RasenBallsport Leipzig in Paris.
PSG go into the game on the back of a 3-2 loss to AS Monaco at Stade Louis II in Ligue 1, a game which Neymar started from the bench.
It was PSG’s fifth defeat of the season in all competitions and only served to yank up the pressure going into the Leipzig clash at the Parc des Princes, where failure to win would seriously compromise their chances of qualifying for the last 16 of the Champions League.
“We must accept the criticism because we completely stopped playing football and stopped doing the things you need to do to win a football match,” Tuchel added. “It is always possible to lose but to lose a match like that is very bizarre.”
Neymar made his comeback after several weeks out injured, appearing as a substitute for the last half-hour. Meanwhile, Mbappé started having missed PSG’s last two games before the international break due to a hamstring problem, and used the occasion to move onto 99 goals for the club. He was taken off in the 69th minute.
Marquinhos was an unused substitute but will come back into the side against Leipzig. Tuchel said: “The match against Leipzig is going to be very difficult but if we had won tonight it would not have been any different.
“We had to take off Kylian, not take any risk with Marquinhos and give Neymar some minutes. The mix between the two matches, Monaco and Leipzig, maybe also explains why we lost concentration. Neymar is full of determination. He will start against Leipzig.”
