As European champions but losers of the recent Club World Cup (CWC) final to European opponents,PSG will be out to not only prove a point against Tottenham but add a maiden UEFA Super Cup trophy to their increasingly crowded cabinet.
One PSG leader particularly keen to put Tottenham to the sword will be head coach Luis Enrique, who was reportedly rejected by Spurs owner Daniel Levy in the summer of 2023. Enrique has since won seven trophies in two seasons with PSG including the club’s first UEFA Champions League (UCL) title, which sent them to their first UEFA Super Cup since losing to Zinedine Zidane’s Juventus in 1996.
Whilst they were impressive for the most part with five clean sheet victories at the CWC, their losses to Botafogo and Chelsea show their heavy favouritism cannot be taken for granted.
Tottenham’s first major trophy in 17 years was not enough to prevent a change of manager, with the highly respected Thomas Frank leaving Brentford to join Spurs on a three-year contract. Frank insists his team will be ready for this clash despite a gruelling tour of south-east Asia that preceded a fatigued loss to Bayern Munich (L 4-0) in their final pre-season game.
Whilst that and failures to beat lower league Luton (D 0-0) and Wycombe (D 2-2) appear worrying, the fact that Spurs’ last four competitive wins came in UEFA competitions illustrates that they could lift themselves for this particular contest.
