PARIS (AP) 鈥� Paris Saint-Germain coach Luis Enrique joked that picking his team against Bayern Munich will be like a 鈥渓ottery鈥� because he finally has a full-strength squad to choose from.
That means midfielder Vitinha could start against the six-time champion in the first leg of their Champions League semifinal in Paris on Tuesday. He missed the last two Ligue 1 games with a right heel injury from a .
鈥淚t’ll be a lottery. Everyone鈥檚 ready,鈥� Luis Enrique said on Monday. 鈥淏ut be warned, we’ll need all the players who are apt to play, and on that point I think we鈥檙e more than ready.鈥�
With so many players pushing for places rather than , Luis Enrique was faced with a new task: 鈥淚t鈥檚 all about calming everyone down.”
Midfield battle
Vitinha’s presence alongside Jo茫o Neves and the returning Fabi谩n Ruiz is crucial in a contest pitting arguably the two best midfields in the competition.
Bayern boasts physicality, tactical assuredness and slick passing with Joshua Kimmich, Aleksandar Pavlovic and Leon Goretzka, allied to the goals and assists of right wing Michael Olise and burly striker Harry Kane. On the left wing is Luis D铆az, who scored both when Bayern won 2-1 in Paris in the league stage in November.
Holding the midfield is key to stopping Bayern dictating the game like it did in the quarterfinals , and against PSG last time they met.
Vitinha has been in sterling form and is on course for his best season in terms of goals, with seven so far, having scored nine for PSG two seasons ago. He was third in the men’s Ballon d’Or vote last year.
Defense
PSG is appearing in its third straight semifinal and faces a Bayern side which has not lost in any competition since Jan. 24 and scored 19 goals in the past five games.
鈥淲ith two teams who attack so well the key will be defense,鈥� Luis Enrique said. “These are the two best teams in Europe in that respect. In terms of consistency, Bayern are slightly ahead of us.鈥�
PSG was sloppy at the back against Bayern in November, and a frustrated after that game.
But when PSG failed to qualify among the top eight teams and directly reach the last 16, Luis Enrique boldly predicted his team would come good later in the competition.
In an upbeat mood, he reminded journalists of that.
鈥淭here is no team better than us,鈥� he said. 鈥淲hen we didn鈥檛 qualify in the top eight teams in the group stage I said I couldn鈥檛 see a team better than us.鈥� ___
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