OUR man in France is Julien Laurens and he's looking at the battle of top v bottom.
Julien is a London-based sports correspondent for Le Parisien and a veritable French football expert. He writes in French and English for a number of esteemed publications and is a regular on BT Sport as well as contributing to Unibet.
PSG v Metz (Sat, 4pm)
PSG crashed out of the Champions League on Tuesday after losing to Real Madrid (2-1). They are back in the league on Saturday afternoon, hosting Metz at the Parc des Princes. It is top against bottom in the table and Paris are huge favourites. However, the fallout of the defeat has been bad.
A lot of players are not happy. Julian Draxler publicly criticised the manager Unai Emery, Edinson Cavani is thinking about leaving the club, Kylian Mbappé and Neymar had an argument a few weeks ago, Layvin Kurzawa didn’t understand why he was in the stands on Tuesday and even the sporting director, only appointed last summer, is under pressure and could be sacked as well!
So the current league leaders are not coming into this game in the best of shape. Neymar is still out injured, Cavani is suspended and Mbappé will replace him as centre forward on Saturday. Marquinhos is doubtful but everyone else is available. Paris are unbeaten at home in the league for two years now and Metz have a dreadful record at the Parc des Princes as well.
The visitors have not won in Paris since 1996. Their current form is not good either as they have not won any of their last six matches in all competitions. They don’t have much hope coming into this game but they will try to frustrate Paris for as longs possible. At least they have Nolan Roux on form. The striker has scored 11 league goals already this season and he is carrying his team, but Paris will win this game easily.
Julien's Tips
- PSG 3, Metz 0 (6-1, Unibet)
- Mbappe to score first (53-20, Unibet)
- Mbappe to score 2+ (27-10, Unibet)
