PSG poised to equal Ligue 1 wins record

Paris St Germain boss Thomas Tuchel admitted his players have records on their mind as they aim for an eighth straight Ligue 1 victory at Nice on Saturday.

Another win for Tuchel’s all-conquering side will see them match the mark for consecutive wins from the start of the season which was set by Lille way back in 1936.

The German, whose side set a new club record with their 4-1 midweek win over Reims, said: “I don’t like to talk about these sorts of things with the players, but I know that the players like these sorts of challenges.

“We can equal Lille’s record of eight wins from 1936-37 – but we don’t need to talk about it, because I know they know about it.”

In contrast to their all-conquering visitors, Nice have endured a patchy start to the new campaign, although their prospects improved significantly with a 2-1 midweek win at Nantes.

And while Mario Balotelli remains the home side’s obvious danger man, Tuchel said he would not focus all his energy on the Italian and instead respect the quality players at his opponents’ disposal.

Tuchel told a press conference: “Nice are a team that like to play football, like to have the majority of the possession and are very confident on the ball.

“Nice have a lot of quality players. Will we focus on stopping Balotelli? No, but he is a quality player. He is enormously talented and he is always dangerous because you never know what he is going to do.”

Tuchel will welcome Kylian Mbappe back from suspension but Lassana Diarra and Colin Dagba are both definitely sidelined, while Julian Draxler, Adrien Rabiot and Thomas Meunier all face late tests.

Nice coach Patrick Vieira said he was “excited” by the prospect of facing PSG – but stressed his long-term plans for the club would not be affected should they become their opponent’s record-equalling victims.

“It will be complicated but it is up to us to be ambitious and to do things that will put them in difficulty,” Vieira told a press conference.

“We must give ourselves the means to succeed in this match. I am excited to see how the team will react to what I have planned, but at the same time this result will not change what we want to do in the long term.”