Blanc retains faith in PSG squad

Following Paris Saint-Germain’s goalless draw with Real Madrid in the Champions League, Laurent Blanc believes his squad has the ability to deliver further success this season.

Blanc guided PSG to a historic treble in 2014-15, as the capital city club lifted the Ligue 1, Coupe de la Ligue and Coupe de France trophies in a dominant campaign.

Wednesday’s encounter at the Parc des Princes saw the two sides cancel each other out in a low-key affair, and Blanc remains confident that his players have the quality required to capture more silverware.

“The squad of Paris-Saint-Germain or any other club will not change a lot during the year,” he said. “You must be optimistic with your players.

“The ones that play, the ones that don’t, the ones that are having a bad run. You know that you are going to keep your team the entire year.

“It’s with this group that you’ll meet the goals of the club. I do not have any choice. We must have all the players at their best in that kind of games. [Zlatan] Ibrahimovic yes but the others as well.

“We’ll have a lot of discussions about the individual performances. But that’s what they need to do in order to create problems for a great club like Real Madrid.”

Blanc was encouraged by his side’s second-half performance against Madrid, with the stalemate leaving the two clubs level on seven points at the top of Group A.

“What we’ve done during the last 10 minutes, we would be pleased to do it more often during the game in order to show the opponent that we respect them but that we do not fear them,” he said. 

“I think we were not afraid of them but then, it’s good to be able to show it on the pitch. I think than in the second half we made them run.

“At the end of it they were close to breaking. I do not know what would have happened if the game would have been a little longer. I think we were also very tired.”

PSG’s next match is at home to Saint-Etienne in Ligue 1 on Sunday.