'Wake-up call' for PSG as Bayern Munich provide stern test to Champions League hopes

Presnel Kimpembe put a megaphone up towards his mouth and tried to drown out the boos.

He was standing a few metres in front of the away supporters’ section of the Louis-II stadium in Monaco. He had seen the banner there urging Paris Saint-Germain to ‘wake up!’.

The PSG defender assured the fans he and his teammates were heeding the advice. “We know what we have to do,” Kimpembe’s amplified voice told them. “But we need you. Don’t give up on us.”

PSG had just lost their second match within four days, Saturday’s 3-1 defeat to Monaco following elimination from the French Cup to Olympique Marseille.

Although their margin at the top of Ligue 1 is still a comfortable six points, the assignment Kimpembe implored the angry loyalists to back the team through is not comfortable at all.

Bayern Munich are at the Parc des Princes on Tuesday in the Champions League, the competition that has frustrated big-spending PSG for the past decade.

Manager Christophe Galtier, embarking on the first Champions League knockout tie of his career and barely half a season into a job that has seen off three worldlier managers since 2018, admits he is “concerned” about form.

The timing of the Bayern collision feels awkward. Besides the back-to-back defeats, there are the injuries.

Kylian Mbappe, PSG’s most reliable match-winner, is coming back from a thigh problem, and although he trained with colleagues on Monday, Galtier has promised there will be “zero risk” in any decision about if, or at what stage in the first leg against Bayern, Mbappe is used.

Marco Verratti and Lionel Messi returned to training ahead of PSG's clash with Bayern Munich. Reuters

Marco Verratti, the metronome of midfield, and Lionel Messi, the match-winner of countless European