25 minutes in, it’s 2-0 to Paris Saint-Germain and things looks as if they’re about to get pretty ugly for Troyes. How many would this season’s champions go on to win by? Well, none.
For the second week running, PSG blew a two-goal lead to give Troyes’s survival hopes an unlikely boost. Here’s what some of the men involved had to say after the game in matchday 36’s Ligue 1 Sunday sounds.
Listen to matchday 35’s Sunday sounds here.
PSG manager Mauricio Pochettino:
“We went 2-0 ahead, I think we started well. We made two mistakes in two passages of play and conceded two goals. One was a penalty that everybody saw. Maybe we lacked a bit of a competitive edge, when you stop having something important to play for, perhaps things are a bit different. Overall, I think we deserved to win. We created more than Troyes, maybe we deserved a little more luck. In any case, the objective was to win the league and we’ve achieved that. Now we need to respect the competition and our opponents and to always try to win, which we weren’t able to do today.”
Troyes head coach Bruno Irles:
“It’s a special match because obviously we were up against the French champions. We were able to pick up a point because of the extra spirit that we showed. Paris have great quality, they aren’t champions for nothing, they can overcome any game plan or strategy that I’ve prepared with the players just at the click of a finger. But my players have that extra spirit because we’re trying to stay up. We’re making some progress, we’ve taken a small step towards survival and I saw 11 players who, with the qualities they have, were ready to fight once again and never gave up. I asked them to press the man on the ball and be aggressive, without fouling, to show desire, to chase everything. As a coach, when you see this selflessness and they carry out what you’ve asked them to do on the pitch, it’s a great source of pride.”
Watch Pochettino and Irles’ press conferences here.
Troyes forward Renaud Ripart:
“We play football so we can experience this kind of feeling. Coming back from 2-0 down at the Parc des Princes shows that this group of players has incredible character and amazing spirit. I’m really happy for all the guys in the squad, it’s great.”
PSG captain Marquinhos, who opened the scoring:
“We started well, we were controlling possession and weren’t in much danger in defence. But the little details made the difference and affected the result. We don’t have much to play for, we’re the champions, we’re just trying to enjoy ourselves and win games. That’s another one that we’ve failed to win at home but I think we controlled the game, we tried to do things. It’s just the result that wasn’t the best.”