Having played for both Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City in his 21 year career as a footballer, Ali Benarbia was the ideal man to talk to ahead of the two sides clashing in the Champions League.
That’s exactly what L’Equipe did, asking the former Algeria international to put together a combined XI of players currently at his two former clubs.
Perhaps surprisingly, the final outcome is rather Paris Saint-Germain biased, with seven of their men chosen, starting with Keylor Navas in goal over Ederson.
The reason for that is the Costa Rican’s ‘experience and serenity’, while his record to date ‘speaks for him’.
We then have Achraf Hakimi at right-back because he is ‘a bit above Kyle Walker’, while Marquinhos kicks off the centre of the defence, as he is ‘THE player great European teams dream to have for the role’ because ‘he knows how to do everything’.
Alongside him, we have the first Manchester City player in Ruben Dias, as he is a ‘profile that’s become rare’, one of a ‘classic defender, who plays cleanly, simply and is there to defend first and foremost’.
At left-back, we have Oleksandr Zinchenko, perhaps by default, since Paris Saint-Germain aren’t really blessed with great left-backs, as Nuno Mendes remains inexperienced, while Layvin Kurzawa and Juan Bernat aren’t of a similar level.
The midfield, however, is Manchester City dominated, as Kevin de Bruyne and Ilkay Gündogan are chosen alongside Marco Verratti to be the three.
As for up front, no one will be surprised that Kylian Mbappé, Neymar and Lionel Messi are chosen over the likes of Jack Grealish, Ferran Torres, Phil Foden or Gabriel Jesus to complete the XI.
We won’t give you his reasons, as they are fairly self explanatory…
So that’s just four Manchester City players and seven from Paris Saint-Germain.
Fair? You tell us.
