Former Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino after the 1-0 defeat to Lille that leaves PSG three points off the pace in Ligue 1: "It's going to be difficult. We knew very well that it was going to be tough until the end and of course we need to keep going and think of all competitions"
Sunday 4 April 2021 07:45, UK
Mauricio Pochettino admits it will be difficult for Paris Saint-Germain to win the Ligue 1 title this season following their home defeat to league leaders Lille.
Neymar was sent off on his return from injury as PSG slipped up 1-0 at home to league leaders, who surged three points clear at the top of Ligue 1.
Pochettino, whose team play Bayern Munich on Wednesday in the Champions League, has now seen his side lose their last three games at home in Ligue 1 as both Monaco and Lille have chances of dethroning the current champions.
PSG have won seven of the last eight Ligue 1 titles, only finishing second behind Monaco in 2017, so this looked a good opportunity for Pochettino to win his first trophy as manager when he was appointed in January.
However, the club now find themselves with a big challenge ahead to claw back the deficit to Lille.
"It's going to be difficult," Pochettino told PSG TV.
"We knew very well that it was going to be tough until the end and of course we need to keep going and think of all competitions. We've got the Champions League coming up so we'll focus on that."
Pochettino's side started the afternoon level on points with their title rivals but ran into a supremely organised Lille side who took the lead on 20 minutes through Jonathan David and stood firm to hold on relativity comfortably.
PSG played a game of possession without a purpose as they rarely got Neymar or Kylian Mbappe into dangerous positions.
"They created fewer chances than us but they were more clinical in front of goal," Pochettino said.
"I think we deserved more at least a point or even three. In the end we lost and of course we're very disappointed with the result. We didn't create enough. We created more than them but not enough and maybe we showed a lack of aggression in the final third. We were thinking that with the dominance we would score but in the end the time ran out we didn't score and we lost the game."
