Despite falling to a 2-1 defeat to Lyon on Sunday, Paris Saint-Germain star Kylian Mbappe remains in confident mood ahead of facing Man Utd.
The two sides meet in the first leg of their last-16 encounter on February 12 in Manchester, before the second leg is played in the French capital on March 6.
As noted by the Telegraph, Neymar is expected to miss both games due to injury, and so the pressure and responsibility to fire PSG through to the next round will largely fall on Mbappe’s shoulders.
Regardless of the domestic setback this weekend, the World Cup winner seemingly remains confident about their chances against Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men.
“We didn’t take so many opportunities,” he is quoted as saying by AS. “I’m not worried about the Champions League match. We must take it match by match and wait for the Champions League. It feels good to play matches like that. Facing teams that play is the best way to prepare for the upcoming challenges. It’s up to us to win.”
The 20-year-old has scored 22 goals and provided 12 assists in 25 appearances across all competitions so far this season, with three of those goals and four assists coming in the Champions League.
In turn, he’ll hope to add to those respective tallies against United, particularly with Neymar not available.
His confidence and relaxed response above should be commended in truth, as despite the disappointment of slipping to their first loss of the season in the league, PSG remain 10 points clear at the top of the table.
Further, they showed by getting through a group which contained both Napoli and Liverpool that they could be building the resolve needed to go far in the Champions League this season, and so remaining calm and not letting any nerves come into play after suffering defeat this past weekend is the best possible mindset to adopt.
