Paris Saint-Germain defender Presnel Kimpembe is eager to face Real Madrid in the last-16 tie of the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday at Parc des Princes.
There will be no gentle reintroduction to UEFA Champions League life as Paris Saint-Germain return to the competition with a round of 16 home game against the 13-time European champions Real Madrid, but that suits Presnel Kimpembe just fine.
The 26-year-old centre-back has grown accustomed to playing with the best since coming through the youth ranks at Paris.
"We never really get out of [shape]. Of course, we have a little break with the holiday period but it's very short. We stay professional and continue to work. Even if there's a lot of time between matches and lots of time to get ourselves back into 'Champions League mode', there's time, but we work every day for that in training and we try to work on this in matches to prepare for Real Madrid," Kimpembe told uefa.com.
"Obviously, it's a big match coming up. We're all really looking forward to it, we're very excited to be able to play in matches like this. That's why we do this job: to be able to play in matches like this one. We'll have to be ready to play a big game, especially if we want to beat a team like Real Madrid," he added.
PSG vs Real Madrid is perhaps the tie of the round, with two bona fide heavyweights set to duke it out for a place in the quarter-finals. Madrid had the more assertive group stage and - with 13 titles to their name and European Cup doyen Carlo Ancelotti in the dugout - have no shortage of pedigree to call upon. Paris, though, promise to be quite the challenge.
( With inputs from ANI )
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