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The home team's coach rested his best for PSG

The Parisians played a tie against Angers in the last round after a 9-game win streak, and they want to get back to winning again

Lille Losc / facebook

Nice are an incredible team that never lets you expect anything. They can beat the best teams of the league, but also lose to the weakest. Another one of their weird games was played away on Tuesday against Lorient. Both them and Lorient are offensively oriented, and despite all the predictions, the game ended 0-0 that day. One point from that game left Nice as the fifth at the league table. Tonight's match against the old, and probably new, French champion will tell us what Nice can really do. 

- We may have played a weird game in Lorient, but I've decided to do seven changes in the roster in the last minute so we'd be ready for Paris. I don't know why I'm being criticized for that? My goal through this season is to give more young players a chance, and this way, we can face PSG with our best. Of course, if we don't manage to beat PSG, the blame will probably go on me. But, I'm optimistic. We're playing against an undefeated leader and we really have nothing to lose. We'll play our game, do our best and try to give the opponent a hard time - the coach Claude Puel said for the press yesterday. 

The goalie Hassen finished his suspension in the last round, and their best player and scorer Ben Arfa recovered from sickness, so the two of them will be among the starters today. Pouplin, Plea, Le Bihan and Traore are out, and the defender Ricardo Pereira will join them because of an injury. 

Miracles do happen, so after nine back-to-back wins, Paris played a 0-0 tie in an away match against the rookie of the first league, Angers. This was the first time this season that they didn't score a goal. They have nothing to worry about, though, because the rest of the teams lose points wherever they can, while the Parisians got 42 points in 16 rounds so far.

- I wouldn't say Angers surprised us, but they played a top game with the help of their fans. I have to admit that this was our toughest game this season physically. I congratulate Angers for their good game, and I hope we learned something from this tie, and we'll be better in Nice - the defender Marquinhos said after their series of wins ended.

The French press published a conversation with the coach Laurent Blanc yesterday, with him saying that he's really pleased with the big number of points they got so far, but that he also wants his team to improve their game. The guests' coach also complained about the injuries, of which he had to deal with plenty this season, but the results didn't suffer so far. Only the injured Pastore and Van der Wiel will stay out today, and the midfielder Verratti is back to the practices and could be in the lineup today. The midfielder Matuidi was struggling with a minor injury in the last days, and even though he was at the practice yesterday, he's questionable.