AFP/Paris

Fresh from a stunning Champions League win in Germany, Paris Saint-Germain will look to maintain their distance from nearest challengers Monaco in Ligue 1 this weekend, while the fight for European qualification behind them intensifies.

Laurent Blanc’s PSG side are five points clear at the top of the table, and tomorrow they travel to face mid-table opposition in Toulouse.

The capital club have one foot in the Champions League quarter-finals after a Zlatan Ibrahimovic brace helped them to a 4-0 win away to Bayer Leverkusen in the first leg of their last-16 tie on Tuesday, so confidence is sky-high ahead of the match at Le Stadium, where PSG have won on each of their last three visits.

Coach Laurent Blanc will now be looking for his team to extend a run of nine games without defeat in the league.

“I think that we saw the Paris of the first half of the season, with the desire to create and to take our chances. We maintained our footballing philosophy while also being clinical in front of goal,” said Blanc in relation to the display in Leverkusen.

Meanwhile, Toulouse midfielder Etienne Didot accepts that his team stand little chance of taking anything from the game if the champions reach the same heights again.

“PSG were impressive. If they play like that on Sunday, it will be very difficult and complicated for us,” he said. “But we will have nothing to lose.”

PSG will only be two points clear at kick-off if Monaco beat Reims at the Stade Louis II on Friday, in a game which is set to see captain Eric Abidal return to the home line-up after he was dropped for last week’s 2-0 win in Bastia.

“He will play. He is a great captain,” said Monaco coach Claudio Ranieri of the 34-year-old Abidal, who it seemed simply needed a rest.

“He has recovered and is fine. It is not possible for a player to be in top condition for 11 months of the year.”

Monaco are still unbeaten in nine matches in 2014, but they may find life tough against a Reims side who held them in the reverse fixture in September and then won when the teams clashed in the League Cup in October.

 

Lille, Lyon meet

in Euro crunch

The current top two have opened a significant gap on the rest, with Monaco eight points clear of Lille in third, but the northern side’s grip on the final Champions League qualifying berth is far from secure.

Saint-Etienne, Marseille and Lyon all lie within five points of Rene Girard’s team and tomorrow night sees Lille host OL at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy.

These two clubs were separated by 15 points at the campaign’s halfway stage but, while Lille have managed just one win in six in 2014, Lyon have rediscovered something like their best form to collect 15 points from a possible 18 over the same period.

“I think we can look at the game this way: If we take the three points, we will move a little further clear of OL, even if nothing will be decided,” admitted Lille’s Danish defender Simon Kjaer. “It is really important not to lose games like this.”

 

 

 

 

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