Recovering from an ankle injury, Aly Cissokho is expected to start at left-back for Valencia in the second leg of the Champions League round of 16 against Paris Saint-Germain (PSG). The 25-year-old, who has played 15 matches in La Liga this season, remains optimistic about the chances of achieving a significant upset at the Parc des Princes.
Acknowledging that Valencia needs an extraordinary performance to qualify, the Senegalese-born player hopes for a lapse in PSG’s performance. Before facing the Parisian side, Cissokho expressed his motivation for the challenge.
“We will have to be patient; it will certainly be a very tactical game. On our part, we will have to be very strong defensively and capitalize on the opportunities we have.”
“In football, nothing is impossible. We certainly lost at home, but we still have every chance. We know that we will have to score to pass, so we will have to play our game and, above all, not concede a goal. The absences of Ibrahimovic and Verratti? We will have two fewer very high-level players to contain, but we will have to be wary of the others, I am thinking, for example, of Beckham or Ménez.”
“They perhaps lack automatisms and can show a little laxity. But we don’t count on that too much. In the Champions League, they are overmotivated.”
“I know the quality of this team; I see them on TV,” adds the former Lyon player. “Individually, they are very strong, and when they display the solidarity they showed at home, they are more than favorites in all competitions.”
