PSG defender Dani Alves: Time to put egos aside

PSG defender Dani Alves (extreme left) trains with teammates on the eve of their Champions League Round-of-16 second leg against Manchester United in Paris yesterday. The French team won the first leg 2-0. Pic/AFP

Dani Alves jokes that Paris Saint-Germain are still Champions League "virgins", but the presence of players like the decorated Brazilian only helps make them more credible contenders to win the coveted trophy.

In a glittering career, Alves has won the Champions League three times with Barcelona and reached another final with Juventus. He is a veteran now, his 36th birthday falling several weeks before this season's final, and he is conscious of what players like him and goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, now 41, can add to a PSG squad already featuring Neymar and Kylian Mbappe.

"We know how to win and how to lose. What we try to transmit to the others is that either we all go together in the same direction, or we leave the doors open to a defeat," Alves said.

He is speaking at the club's training ground in the upmarket Paris suburb of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 48 hours before their last 16, second leg at home to Manchester United.

The mood is relaxed, with confidence high in Paris that Thomas Tuchel's side will make good their 2-0 first-leg win last month, achieved without Neymar and Edinson Cavani, the two superstars both out injured.

"This is not a competition that depends only on one player having a spectacular day," he insists. "When you have experienced players, you don't tremble when it comes to playing in a hostile atmosphere, or under pressure."

In his first campaign at PSG last season, they were knocked out at this stage by Real Madrid, the first time Alves had not been involved in the quarter-finals of the Champions League in a decade. It was an enormous disappointment for Paris and their Qatari owners, who had just paid the two biggest transfer fees in history for Neymar and Mbappe.

Man Utd's Sanchez ruled out for two months
London: Manchester United have suffered another injury blow with the news that Chilean forward Alexis Sanchez could be out for two months. The news was shared by Chile national team doctor Pedro Onate, writing in the 'El Mercurio' newspaper. Sanchez was forced to limp out of United's dramatic 3-2 win at home to Southampton on Saturday, and Onate said he had suffered "medial ligament distension" in his right knee, which will sideline him for "between six weeks and eight weeks."

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