PSG on the comeback trail

By David Minton

Back-to-back league wins against FC Sochaux-Montbéliard and FC Metz may have sent Paris Saint-Germain FC into the winter break on something of a high, but the bitter taste of failure in their European campaign is likely to linger into the new year.

Cup win
PSG started 2005 with a 6-1 win against US Langueux in the French Cup at the weekend, but it will take more than that to fully eradicate the memory of their final UEFA Champions League game of 2004, as they lost 3-1 at home against a ten-man PFC CSKA Moskva side and finished bottom of Group H.

'Lack of quality'
After the match, coach Vahid Halilhodzic could not hide his disappointment at his side's failure to get the win which would have taken them through to the last 16. "It's a massive let down," he said. "The major problem was not a lack of quality or a lack of physical preparation, but the poor mentality of the players."

M'Bami injured
The writing seemed to be on the wall as early as the second minute, when Cameroon midfield player Modeste M'Bami, the club's undisputed player of the season to date, was carried off on a stretcher with a broken fibula. The 22-year-old expected to be out for two months.

Lacking experience
He was replaced by French international full-back Bernard Mendy, pressed into action as an emergency central midfield player. "I didn't have many options," admitted Halilhodzic. "M'Bami's injury destabilised my team. I do not have a big squad and the players I do have lack experience of such a big competition."

Threadbare squad
Fabrice Pancrate, one of those inexperienced players, cancelled out Semak's opener before half-time. Halilhodzic's evident delight for his summer signing from Le Mans UC 72 was tempered by his displeasure at the playing resources at his disposal. He said: "If you're relying on a forward signed from second division football to help you qualify for the last 16 of the Champions League then, as a club, you have to be asking yourself serious questions."

Confidence collapses
PSG failed to take advantage of CSKA full-back Deividas Šemberas being sent off in the 53rd minute, a fact which troubled the coach. He said: "My players didn't know whether to attack or play on the break after the red card, and when [Sergei] Semak scored his second they suffered a total breakdown in confidence."

Fans protest
Semak soon added his third goal. The PSG fans were not amused. Towards the end of the CSKA match the first chants of "Vahid resign" rang out. The supporters began to boo whenever the home players touched the ball and cheered whenever their Russian visitors launched an attack.

Disappointing season
That was as clear a sign as any that, in a season which has seen other Ligue 1 sides perform so well in Europe, PSG fans expect much better. And while Halilhodzic has reversed the appalling form that blighted PSG at the start of the domestic campaign, it may not be enough.

Le Guen rumours
Halilhodzic is 18 months into a four-year deal, but Paul Le Guen, coach of French champions Olympique Lyonnais and a former PSG defender, is out of contract in the summer sparking rumours in the French press that there'll be a new man in charge come the start of the 2005/06 season.

Maximum effort
Halilhodzic, however, is determined to battle on. "People said we were in crisis earlier in the season but we managed to turn things around," he said. "I will continue to put 100 per cent into my work."