In the lead-up to Wednesday's Champions League last 16 return leg against Barcelona, PSG boss Mauricio Pochettino has made it clear that his side - who hammered the Catalans 4-1 in the first leg - harbour high hopes for this season's campaign.
Often the approach in football is to avoid embarrassment or disappointment by denying - or dissimulating the extent of - one's ambitions, but new PSG boss Mauricio Pochettino is clearly a subscriber to a different school of though on the matter.
Cards on the table
"Clearly, it is the ambition of the club to win this competition," he declared on Monday. "There are many other teams who want to win it, and it's not easy. We are aware of our responsibility, and we will fight to the death to achieve it."
The Argentine may still be new in the job and contending with injuries to big-name players - most notably Neymar Jr, who is racing the clock to be fit to face his former club in Wednesday's round of 16 return leg - but after taking Tottenham to the final in 2019, he has the experience to helm the club in Europe's top competition.
Turning the page
"There was a different project in Paris in recent years, today we are seeing how to create our own," said 'Poch', who stepped in early in 2021 after Thomas Tuchel was shown the door on 29 December. "It's a different job compared to Tottenham, but the objective remains the same, to win."
Les Rouge et Bleu are well on track to progress to the quarter-finals, a virtuoso first-leg performance from Kylian Mbappé sparking a 4-1 win at the Camp Nou three weeks ago. However, the new boss is clearly keen to demonstrate that not only will his side not be falling victim to a repeat of the Rimuntada - PSG's squandering a 4-0 first-leg lead by losing 6-1 in Barcelona in 2017 - but that they have what it takes to go all the way.
