Former AS Monaco and England international Mark Hateley sat down with Get French Football News to discuss tonight’s UEFA Champions League semi-final between Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain.
After last week’s 5-4, a lot of people were saying that they wished PSG-Bayern was the final. Is that something you’d have liked to see?
Cup competitions are always difficult to call because most of the time, the best team might not win. The best team will always win a league, but a cup competition is very ‘iffy and butty.’ I think the game itself on the night was an exceptional game of football, an incredible game of football. Some incredible players on show, both excelling on how to score goals but not how to defend! But what does the punter want to see? They want to see dynamic games like that with lots of goals.
PSG, it started last year, popping the ball through the lines, very, very, very quickly. Trying to get to the wider areas, trying to get the ball into the box, getting goals scored. And I think the time of big goal scorers has come back. As we saw with the game itself, 5-4, great performances, but defenders and managers will be going well look at that, look at that, look at that. But for the neutral on the night – maybe not your Bayern Munich and PSG supporters, they’ll be a bit more heart in mouth – it was just popcorn flying everywhere.
Which players have really stood out to you from PSG and Bayern?
Harry Kane, Michael Olise, and Luis Díaz, your goal scorers. And on the other side, you’ve got Bradley Barcola, Ousmane Dembélé, and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. I’m not going to say Kvaratskhelia’s an unsung hero, but out of all the other stars that are in that side, he has been Mr. Consistent. Assists and goals.
That’s what it’s all about; that’s what’s been impressive for me [about PSG]. Cast your mind back to when they were absolutely full of superstars. They were doing OK in periods, but not over a long period, because there were mega egos all around the place. So that has been whittled down into a tighter unit, with decent players, without those bigger egos, but who are just as good. And that’s where PSG are at. It’ll be a big game tonight.
Kylian Mbappé’s departure from PSG has been seen as a turning point for the club, while for Real Madrid, he’s entering his second season without having won the league, the cup, or the Champions League. Why do you think it’s gone wrong for him?
It’s a difficult one. Probably what it is is his overall demeanour. I think everybody has seen it with the naked eye. People won’t say it, but it’s just his manner. He will throw a strop. He has that ego, and that ego definitely didn’t work at PSG. And that was found out, and I think a lot of trouble was caused behind the scenes, training ground incidents. I think there was another incident this week with Real Madrid officials. So that keeps rearing its head. You’ve got Vinícius Jr., who hasn’t hit the numbers [since Mbappé joined]; why is that? You put two and two together, and you get the answer. He’s a great player, but I’m also going to say – I don’t know the guy at all – from the outside, he could be a manager’s big problem with keeping everyone together, that tight unit that needs to be tight all the way through the season to win a Championship. They could win a cup because, depending on what Mbappé is going to turn up, that could be a possibility, but to win a league, I think it’s going to be really difficult for any manager to keep a lid on it.
There was a bit of a debate after last week between people who said this game showed how lacklustre the Premier League has been this year and those who say PSG and Bayern are so good because their domestic leagues aren’t as difficult. Where do you stand on this?
I’m going to say the Premier League is a tougher league; it’s more competitive. You look at Spain right now; that’s just flipped its lid on the case of Real Madrid not being [the level] they should be. You’re still down to the same ‘same-old same-old ’: two or three teams winning the league. I think the Premier League, for a long time this season, there were four or five teams in [the title race]. And then it filtered itself out after Christmas when it’s there to be won. So I’m going to say there’s never an easy game in the Premier League; you can go anywhere and get beat. The difference is that you can go, especially in France, and know that you’re playing at 50% and still come away [with the win]. And I think that’s what makes the Premier League so exciting for the television [audience]. That’s why the majority of all the money is ploughed through the Premier League; it’s one of the top leagues globally for broadcasting, and that comes because of the competitiveness.
