PARIS (Reuters) – Kylian Mbappe said he was confident Paris St Germain could advance into the quarter-finals of the Champions League despite losing 1-0 to Bayern Munich in the first leg of their last-16 clash on Tuesday.
The France forward came on as a substitute in the 57th minute and ignited the game, having two goals disallowed for offside as his entrance changed the storyline of the match.
“We have to remember the final part of the game; we’re behind but we saw that we were able to cause them trouble. We need all our players to be healthy and go there to win and qualify,” said Mbappe, who was back after a two-week injury layoff.
Mbappe’s return to fitness is PSG’s best hope looking ahead to the March 8 second leg at the Allianz Arena.
“I was not supposed to play but I wanted to help my mates, bring some energy. We tried everything. Today I couldn’t do more,” he said.
Mbappe believes that if PSG are at full strength they can turn things around in Munich.
“It’s important that all our players are healthy, that everyone eats well, sleeps well,” he said.
“We saw that when we are all together we are able to play forward, to play attacking football and that they were not comfortable.”
Coach Christophe Galtier will also hope that Achraf Hakimi will be back on the right flank of the defence after he was replaced because of injury at halftime.
“I was counting on him but it quickly became evident that he could not play the whole game,” said Galtier.
“We took a risk with him but he quickly suffered from muscle pains.”
Galtier has hopes that the story will be different in three weeks in Munich.
“It’s another game. Tonight, nobody is out, nobody is through. I have a lot of hope. I hope we will have a lot of fresh players and that we will be able to play the way we played the last 20-25 minutes.”
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Clare Fallon)
