Paris: French champions Paris Saint-Germain continue to tick off their remaining league fixtures as they welcome Rennes to the capital on Friday night, knowing that a win would equal their own Ligue 1 points record.
Laurent Blanc’s men made it three French League Cup triumphs in a row last weekend, despite being reduced to 10 men, thanks to Angel Di Maria’s winner against Lille.
Now they will turn their attention back to the league, where they are 27 points clear at the top of the table with just four matches to play.
PSG have just one game left this season of any real importance, the French Cup final against arch rivals Marseille at the Stade de France on May 21, although they need just four more points to break the Ligue 1 record of 89 that they set in 2013-14.
The only disappointment for the club this season was the Champions League quarter-final exit at the hands of Manchester City, but Qatari chairman Nasser Al Khelaifi quashed speculation about coach Blanc’s future by saying that he would stay at the club next term.
Some of the PSG players, including Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Javier Pastore, were allowed to go on holiday to Las Vegas after the French League Cup win.
Rennes coach Rolland Courbis though brushed off any thoughts that the weekend trip could affect their performance or fitness levels on Friday.
“Given that they have had three days’ rest, I have other things to do than to judge PSG players and they had permission to go to Las Vegas,” he told sports daily L’Equipe.
“I would have preferred them to have just played in the Champions League semi-finals, or to have just played a Ligue 1 game like Lille and Angers (on Wednesday), but we are not in charge.
“After their three days’ rest, they can do what they want.”
Rennes have dropped out of the race for Champions League qualification after picking up just one point in their last three matches, although Courbis still thinks that a top-six finish and a possible Europa League place are within his side’s grasp with three games to go.
“Two wins could be enough to finish sixth, which would be much better than seventh,” Courbis, whose team sit one point behind sixth-placed Lille, added.
“The minimum target for our last three games against PSG, Montpellier and Bastia is six points.
“We must stay professional and not let go when there is still something we can achieve, and that something is sixth. It’s not easy, but it’s not impossible.”
It will be tough for Rennes to pick up one of their two targeted victories at the Parc des Princes, where PSG have lost just once in 37 league matches.
Having said that, the Brittany club have only been defeated twice in their last eight Ligue 1 trips to the capital.
German goalkeeper Kevin Trapp is likely to return in place of Salvatore Sirigu for PSG, with Di Maria and Ibrahimovic looking to cap off a week in which they were both nominated for the Ligue 1 Player of the Year award.
Courbis has said that striker Kamil Grosicki is a doubt with a muscle problem, while Fallou Diagne is suspended.
