PARIS (Reuters) – Carlo Ancelotti has dismissed any suggestion that Kylian Mbappe’s focus on Tuesday’s Champions League final-16 first leg between Real Madrid and Paris St Germain may be affected by a possible transfer to the Spanish aspect.
PSG turned down a suggestion of round 160 million euros ($180.98 million) from Real for Mbappe final August, despite the fact that the participant had lower than a 12 months left on his contract.
The France striker, 23, is extensively anticipated to maneuver to Real on a free switch on the finish of this season after resisting a suggestion to signal a brand new contract with PSG.
“Every participant within the recreation will be 100% targeted on knocking out a staff who can compete with them to win the Champions League,” Real coach Ancelotti informed a information convention on Monday earlier than the fixture on the Parc des Princes.
“Mbappe will be pondering the identical as Karim Benzema or Vinicius. Everyone has the identical goal.”
Ancelotti mentioned he will wait till the day of the sport earlier than deciding whether or not or to not begin prime scorer Benzema, who has been out of motion for 3 weeks with a hamstring harm however returned to coaching on Sunday and was chosen within the squad.
“I will have the ultimate phrase after the physician and the participant. I’ll should hearken to what they are saying then resolve,” mentioned three-time Champions League winner Ancelotti, who coached PSG between 2011 and 2013.
“He has already skilled, even when only individually and he’ll see how he is feeling. He hasn’t performed for nearly a month, however it’s Karim we’re speaking about. If he is okay, he has to play.”
Benzema, who has scored 24 targets in 28 video games in all competitions this season, mentioned he would “all the time play by the ache” for his staff and would accomplish that once more on Tuesday so long as there was no threat of additional harm.
($1 = 0.8841 euros)
(Reporting by Richard Martin; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
