As Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) gear up to begin their 2020-2021 Ligue 1 season, manager Thomas Tuchel has said that they "won't be able to be at our best", given that the team is playing their first match since the Champions League final.
PSG had suffered a 1-0 defeat in the Champions League final at the hands of Bayern Munich on August 24. The Tuchel-led side will begin the Ligue 1 campaign against Lens on Friday.
"They (Lens) played a very good first match against Nice, they could have won. They play 5-2-1-2, they play compact in the middle and at the back, their defence is proactive and physical," the club's official website quoted Tuchel as saying.
"...It won't be easy, our last match was the Champions League final, it will be hard to get back into the rhythm right away, we will have to give our best on the pitch, but we won't be able to be at our best. It will be a tough match, and a tight one, we want to win every match, I have confidence in my players, we will do our best!" he added.
Last week, PSG had confirmed three new coronavirus cases which took the total number of cases in the club to six as they had already announced three cases before that.
In addition, Kylian Mbappe had tested positive for the virus earlier this week. The French football team had tweeted: "Kylian Mbappe will miss the game against Croatia. His COVID-19 test -- carried out by UEFA this morning -- was positive, and he was isolated from the rest of the squad."
Tuchel said: "The 7 players that are positive for COVID will be missing... The most important thing is the health of the players, we have to manage these situations with a lot of responsibility."
( With inputs from ANI )
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