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Manchester United legend Peter Schmeichel believes Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) won't win the UEFA Champions League this season due to their inept defense.
Schmeichel's comments came in the aftermath of the Parisians' outstanding 7-2 Champions League victory over Maccabi Haifa on Tuesday (October 25). While Christophe Galtier's side were outstanding in attack, they had a few defensive lapses. Maccabi registered 13 shots, five of which were on target, on the night.
Schmeichel, who was on punditry duty for CBS Sports, believes such lapses could prevent PSG from winning the Champions League. The former Manchester United and Denmark goalkeeper said (as quoted by the Daily Mail):
"When you talk about them winning the Champions League, I think the problem they have also showed today. So, when they're 4-0 up, all of a sudden, it's 4-2. They need to score a lot of goals to win games and it's not always going to happen."
He added:
"I think they're terrible at defending and that's also because of the three front players."
He seemed to be referring to Lionel Messi, Neymar Jr. and Kylian Mbappe in the final part of his comments. PSG's star-studded attacking trio were notably criticized for not tracking back and helping out defensively last season as well. Schmeichel continued:
"When you are at the stadium, and you see how little they [Messi, Neymar, Mbappe] take part in defending. Everybody else, Bayern Munich, Man City - all of those teams - it's 11 players attacking, it's 11 players defending, and I think in modern day football that's what you need."
He added:
"And that I could see could be problem in one game against Man City and one game against Real Madrid. That's enough to get knocked out."
PSG run riot against Maccabi Haifa to maintain unbeaten start to the 2022-23 season
PSG were overwhelming favorites to defeat Maccabi Haifa in the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday. They put in a scintillating display to hammer the Israeli side 7-2 at the Parc des Princes.
Lionel Messi opened the scoring in the 19th minute with a stunning outside-of-the-boot strike. Kylian Mbappe then netted a curler 13 minutes later to put the Parisians in the driving seat. Messi then slipped in Neymar Jr., who scored with ease to make it 3-0 in the 35th minute.
Abdoulaye Seck got one back for Maccabi from a set-piece, but Messi's second goal put the hosts 4-1 up at half-time. Seck scored again for the visitors just five minutes into the second half following a decent attacking spell.
However, PSG found the back of the net three more times through Mbappe, an own goal from Sean Goldberg and Carlos Soler to register a dominant win.
The Parisians are now unbeaten in five Champions League matches and 12 Ligue 1 games to start the season, winning 13 times.
