Verratti Opens Up About PSG’s Heartbreaking Remontada Defeat to Barcelona in 2017

Marco Verratti recently spoke about his time with Paris Saint-Germain. The midfielder discussed various topics about his 11 years in the French capital, including which loss at PSG hurt the most.

The capital club has had many disastrous results in the UEFA Champions League, which the Italian has been a part of. Nonetheless, the one that stung him the most was the 6-1 remontada at Camp Nou.

In an interview with L’Equipe, the 31-year-old stated what he felt the days after PSG lost to Barcelona in an embarrassing and heartbreaking way. 

“The biggest distress? The 6-1 vs Barcelona,” I think we never digest something like that. It’s so unimaginable. After experiencing this, you say to yourself: I will do everything to ensure that this never happens again. But football is also pretty for that. If you look at it from the other side, it’s crazy. I think it was fate

“I suffered a lot from big defeats. When people say: he takes his money, he doesn’t care, tomorrow he’ll go to the restaurant… But it hurt. Like if you lose a loved one, you wake up at night, you don’t know what you have, you are so sad. These moments also make you understand that you really care about a club.”

PSG eventually reached the Champions League final in 2020, but during Verratti’s time, the squad could not lift that trophy. The Italian will now have to root for the French giants from afar after leaving this past summer for Qatari side Al-Arabi in early September for reportedly around €45 million. 

It will be interesting to see if PSG can exercise those Champions League demons in the coming years and win that trophy, which has long eluded the club.