Round 4 action in the French Ligue 1 ends with a special fixture as Lionel Messi is ready to make his PSG debut. The Parisians face an unbeaten Reims team away from home.
The visitors will likely dominate the clash and earn plenty of corners. Bookmaker 10Bet has the odds at 1.42 for PSG to win the race to five corners and at 2.20 for them to be the first team to register seven corners.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: August 28th, 3:00 P.M. (EST)
PSG shocked the footballing world earlier in the month by signing the six-time Ballon d’Or winner, but he hasn’t yet featured in any games due to a lack of fitness. Messi’s participation on Sunday isn’t 100 percent certain either, but he’s been training for a while now and should be eager to soak up his first PSG minutes before heading away on international duty.
Messi will join an attack that has been red-hot at the start of the season. PSG have scored 10 goals through the first three rounds in Ligue 1, beating teams with ease. It’s a very worrying sign for their competitors as Messi isn’t the only superstar who hasn’t yet played a single minute this season.
Neymar and Gianluigi Donnarumma have both received extended time off following a busy summer on the international front and Sergio Ramos hasn’t been able to make his debut due to a calf injury. With everybody fit, PSG looks like a superteam, even if Kylian Mbappe ends up moving to Madrid.
Reims are a former superteam that featured twice in the European Champions Cup final in the 1950s. The club also boasts six French championships.
The glory days will likely never come back for Reims, but they have at least been a solid Ligue 1 side in recent years, recording a pair of top-half finishes before ending up 14th last term.
The team picked up only two wins from the last 16 matches last season, and whilst there were also only five losses, a lot of points were left on the table and it’s a situation that needs to be fixed.
Spanish manager Oscar Garcia was brought in to start turning the draws into wins, but he hasn’t yet found the necessary formula. Reims are unbeaten at the start of the season, but old habits die hard and it’s resulted in three consecutive draws.
Breaking the pattern has been made tough for Garcia as the club sold top scorer Boulaye Dia to Villarreal. The Senegalese striker has left big boots to be filled after scoring a third of the team’s 42 league goals in 2020-21.
