Following the team’s 3-1 loss to Lens on Sunday night, PSG boss Christophe Galtier announced that Kylian Mbappe and Achraf Hakimi would receive “a few days off” from their club commitments.
With France and Morocco, respectively, Mbappe and Hakimi played major roles in the 2022 World Cup. Mbappe advanced to the final before Les Bleus lost to Argentina on penalties, and Hakimi advanced to the semi-finals with the Atlas Lions before being eliminated by his PSG teammate.
Both players participated in the previous game against Strasbourg, which may surprise some given how many minutes they clocked in Qatar. They both started the shocking loss to Lens and played the full 90 minutes.
Galtier now claims that because they were hurried back into club activity after the World Cup, they need time to “recover.”
After the game, he added, “Hakimi and Mbappe will get a few days off.” The idea was for them to be able to play these two games. They’ll now get better.
Mbappe was their best player during their seven World Cup appearances and scored eight goals, leading them to the final game. However, his heroics were insufficient as Argentina, led by Lionel Messi, won the game 3-3 on penalties.
They were unable to stop PSG from losing their opening Ligue 1 encounter, therefore they were unable to translate their strong World Cup performance to club level this past weekend.
Galtier delivered a harsh assessment of his teammates, claiming he “couldn’t recognize” the group that was on the field.
He claimed, “I couldn’t recognize my team.” “We lacked unity.” We made numerous technical errors and left a lot of blank space.
