Tuesday’s UEFA Champions League clash between Paris Saint-Germain and Club Brugge will be special for Thomas Meunier.
The Belgium right-back joined PSG from Brugge in 2016 and has made 110 appearances for the capital club and scored 13 goals and recorded 21 assists. Meunier is expected to start against his old team despite the return of Colin Dagba who has been out with an injury per Le Parisien and has only just returned as revealed by Thomas Tuchel’s 20-man squad.
So, perhaps no one is better suited to talk about the dangers that Brugge posses than one of their former players. In his pre-match press conference, Meunier talked about the footballing culture in the city and whether or not he expects a warm welcome from the supporters.
One thing Meunier won’t do is take the Belgium side lightly. He is well aware that they outplayed Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium and really should have won that game. Brugge is in second place in the table and win would bring them to only one point behind league-leaders Paris Saint-Germain. A lot is riding on the outcome of this match and Meunier was all business when talking to the media according to the club’s official website.
On Brugge…
Well, it’s a club that enjoys strong support. There are around 25,000 season-ticket holders in a stadium of 30,000. There’s a kind of English culture when it comes to football here and I’m not expecting to be welcome in any particular way tomorrow. I hope that these supporters will enjoy the game, my performance, PSG’s game, and I hope that they have a nice evening.
This game away is your second one in the Champions League after Galatasaray. Do you think tonight is a bit of a banana skin?
Well yes, it is of course. Look at the league games of Club Brugge how they beat the opposition. Galatasaray, they could have beat them. Real Madrid, they were leading 2-0 and they could have been leading 3-0 in fact at halftime and wrapped that game up. They really played an outstanding game that night. So yes, of course, I expect a difficult game and it will be a bit of a banana skin and we need to respect them and not underestimate them at all.
The danger can come from anywhere because they have a very complete squad. But the key is Hans Vanhacken. He’s a player who can make the difference at any time.
On repositioning to defense…
Every day, I regret having accepted to play in defense! I have put my own enjoyment to one side because what I prefer is the goal. But I accepted, and that enabled me to be a first-team regular at Brugge, then opened the doors to the national team and a transfer to Paris Saint-Germain. I hope to have a long career as a right-back.
