On the eve of the UEFA Women's Champions League quarter-final second leg against Bayern Munich at the Parc des Princes at 21:00 on Wednesday 30 March, Paris Saint-Germain Women coach Didier Ollé-Nicolle answered questions from PSG TV and the media. Excerpts.
BAYERN MUNICH
"We know that the first leg was very close. When I presented the Bayern team to my players before the match, I told them that we were not going there to get a minimalist result and that we had to do our best because the return leg would be as complicated as the first one, because Bayern are a team that has been playing together for four or five years. They have established automatisms, and are a well-organised team. They play as well at home as they do on the road. They had a good game in Lyon, where they lost in the last minute but put OL in trouble. The two matches were close, and almost the same. We have a small advantage after the first game. It's very good but we know that to reach the last four of the Champions League, we will have to play a very good game in terms of our organisation, recovery of the ball, open play and efficiency."
PARC DES PRINCES
"Of course, it's great to play a quarter-final against Bayern at the Parc, this wonderful stadium. We'll experience the passion for an evening. We are very proud that 25,000 people have bought a ticket to support us. It rewards our work. We will of course give everything put the biggest smile we can on their faces. We know that we will also need them - our twelfth man! - all the supporters, and the ultras who spur us on in even in the most complicated moments, because there are always some during a match. They are also there to push us and make our team surpass itself in our strong moments. I hope we will have some great moments with the fans."
THE FIRST LEG
"I'm not going to go into detail about the tactical aspect, but there are things we look to rectify after every game. We prepared ourselves to be ready for March, April and May. We know that everything depends on that. But we had to be consistent, coherent and move forward. Most of the work has been done in the last eight months. Today, it's more surgical. In the first game, we were up against a very good team. They are women who are coming to maturity in terms of automatisms, movements and attacking play. They have an identity, but we knew that. We can see that they are very coherent. So we knew that in Munich it was going to be complicated in certain areas. We didn't have all our weapons. We were missing important players in terms of our balance and experience. I am generally very satisfied with the way the team has been working for a while, but we should never be satisfied with what we have. Our idea, if we want to go to the top level, is to have this requirement to always progress and to settle these small details."
PREPARATION
"There is no miracle formula. You have to insist a lot on recovery between matches and pay attention to the dosage of training. But when you train every day for eight months, at some point, the players prefer to play. The positioning of the Coupe de France semi-final was not necessarily ideal, between two Champions League matches, because there was still a place in the final to play for. It is very important for the club. We want to add as many lines as possible to our record of achievements. The Coupe de France is one of them. On Wednesday, the idea will be to continue our journey in the Champions League and to qualify. There is nothing better for recovery than winning matches."
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