The second round of the French Football League will kick off tomorrow, Friday, with Paris Saint-Germain, the title holder, facing Montpellier at the Parc des Princes. The French capital team, led by its Spanish coach Luis Enrique, is looking forward to exploiting the home-field advantage in the team’s first appearance on its home field and among its fans in the new 2024/2025 season.
Enrique and his players hope to achieve another victory after starting strongly by defeating host Le Havre 4-1 in the opening match of the league championship last Friday.
The team will play against Montpellier without the efforts of its Portuguese striker Goncalo Ramos, who underwent surgery on his right ankle, which will keep him off the field for at least three months.
Ramos’ absence is a major blow to coach Luis Enrique, especially since the Portuguese striker was the team’s second top scorer last season after Kylian Mbappe, who moved to Real Madrid this summer on a free transfer.
The Paris Saint-Germain coach has many other attacking solutions in light of the presence of Randal Kolo Muani, Ousmane Dembele, Lee Kang-in and Bradley Barcola, who scored the four goals in the first match against Le Havre, and he can also employ the Spaniard Marco Asensio in the position of the explicit striker, which is what he resorted to in a number of matches last season.
On the other hand, Montpellier wants to achieve a positive result on the opponent’s ground, especially after the team stumbled in the first round with a 1-1 draw at home and in front of its fans against Strasbourg.
Three matches will be held the day after tomorrow (Saturday), the most prominent of which is a strong clash between Lyon and its guest Monaco, while Lille will play against Angers, and Saint-Etienne against Le Havre.
At the Groupama Stadium, Lyon will face a challenge in front of its fans after disappointing with a heavy loss to Rennes by three goals to none in the first round.
Neither the fans nor the coach Pierre Sage will accept another setback that could expose the team to a major shock, while Monaco, the runner-up last season, enters the match in a relatively positive position after starting its league campaign with a win over Saint-Etienne with a goal by the Japanese Takumi Minamino.
Lille seems to be the closest to achieving victory against its guest Angers, who lost at home by one goal in the first match against Lens, while Lille started with a valuable victory away from home against Reims by two goals to none.
In another match, Saint-Etienne, who have been promoted back to the Premier League, hopes to overcome their first-round loss to Monaco when they host Le Havre, who lost 4-0 to Paris Saint-Germain.
Next Sunday, Marseille will meet Reims at the Stade Velodrome, where Marseille, led by Italian coach Roberto De Cerbi, will seek to exploit the team’s strong start in the first round when it crushed its host, Brest, third in the standings last season, with a score of 5/1.
Marseille are counting on many prominent players in their ranks, especially the trio who recently joined the team this season: Argentine goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli, and the attacking duo Elie Wahi and Mason Greenwood, who scored a brace against Brest. This day also witnesses four other matches, as Lens plays Brest, Nantes plays Auxerre, Nice plays Toulouse, and Strasbourg plays Rennes.
