Antoine Kombouaré, Claude Makelele and Mevlut Erding anwswered questions from the numerous journalists present in Radès.

A Radès,

Antoine Kombouare (PSG manager)
Antoine, is this the first competitive match of the season, or the final preparation match?
“We still have matches to go, starting with the Tournoi de Paris, as of this week-end. The objective of this match, which is part of our preparation programme, is a win. A winning culture comes through victories and victories bring confidence. We won the Coupe de France and that gave us the right to dispute this encounter and we will be giving our all!”

What are your objectives during the game?
“I hope that there will be no injuries. We will take advantage of it to build up our strength and work on our automatisms. Victories confirm the work that we have put in up until now. Winning friendly matches is all well and good, but what is important is the league and the three points up for grabs”.

What do you think about this match played outside of France?
“It’s like a mini training camp, away from home. It permits the group to live together, to work together. The links that are created allow us to search out victories and to be tolerant amongst ourselves when we encounter problems”.

The Marseille camp are making PSG out to be favourites …
“I have heard my friend Didier Deschamps declare that we are favourites. It’s all a game, but I’d remind him that the Champions of France are OM. That makes them favourites! I think that it will be an open game, we know what is at stake and the rivalry between the two clubs. We will fight it out tomorrow. We want to show a good image of PSG, French football and that will come through a good show and great play”.

Claude Makelele (PSG captain) “At the end of the 90 minutes there is a trophy up for grabs. It’s always important to start off the season with a victory. It puts the club into a positive spiral. Marseille are logically favourites, they won the league, are playing the Champions League. We are concentrating on our preparation and are getting stronger. We are better and better. Nenê and Bodmer have brought us an important technical touch. We have an important role to play over the course of the season. Our victories will calm the atmosphere surrounding the club. We noticed that there were some Parisian supporters in Tunisia, we will be trying to make them happy on Wednesday night”. Mevlut Erding (PSG striker) “I can’t get this trophy out of my head! I’m a competitor, I want to win trophies and it is a real pleasure to play such an encounter here in Tunisia. We have every reason to be optimistic, with players like Nenê capable of scoring or providing, we can put in a great season”.