Alex: PSG can't keep relying on late goals
Reuters - Thursday 22 March 2012, 12:41
Ligue 1 pace-setters Paris Saint-Germain must stop relying on last-gasp goals to win or draw
matches, according to their Brazilian centre half Alex.
PSG, who have a two-point advantage over second-placed
Montpellier at the top of the table, needed stoppage-time
strikes to clinch a 2-1 victory at Dijon and a 2-2 draw at Caen
in their two last league games.
Carlo Ancelotti's side then suffered their first defeat in
four months when they lost 3-1 at home to Olympique Lyon in the
French Cup quarter-finals on Wednesday, failing to recover from
a one-goal deficit despite a strong second-half showing.
"We managed to score in the last minutes of several games
but we should have this will to win in the whole match," Alex
told a news conference ahead of Sunday's home league encounter
with Girondins Bordeaux.
"We have to play well and be aggressive for 90 minutes. If
we showed the same will to win as we did in the second half
yesterday I think we would not lose another game," added the
defender who joined the club from Chelsea in January.
PSG will have midfielder Mohamed Sissoko back from
suspension at the weekend and full-back Maxwell returning after
injury.
Eighth-placed Bordeaux are without Yoan Gouffran. Their top-
scorer in the league with nine goals has a sprained ankle.
Olympique Marseille, in ninth spot, need to bounce back
following the embarrassment of their French Cup exit at third
division Quevilly.
"What we did makes me ashamed," coach Didier Deschamps told
reporters after amateurs Quevilly won 3-2 in extra-time to
inflict a seventh consecutive defeat in all competitions on his
side.
Marseille, who host Bayern Munich in a Champions League
quarter-final first leg on Wednesday, travel to
relegation-threatened Nice for a Cote d'Azur derby on Saturday.
"It won't be easy. The atmosphere will be particularly hot,"
said Deschamps.
Montpellier, who also suffered a shock 1-0 defeat at third
tier Gazelec Ajaccio in the French Cup, host sixth-placed Saint-Etienne on Saturday.
Champions Lille, in third position nine points off the pace,
travel to Evian Thonon Gaillard on Saturday as fifth-placed
Olympique Lyon entertain struggling Sochaux.