Mats Hummels and Benedikt Höwedes have put Marquinhos under the spotlight before Paris Saint-Germain’s tie with Bayern Munich, identifying the 31-year-old as a potential weak link in the PSG defence. Höwedes said Marquinhos was the main weak point in the league campaign, while Hummels said Bayern would try to press the centre-back every time he had the ball and make him feel uncomfortable again.
The warning carries weight because Bayern already found success against him in early November, when they beat PSG 2-1 at Parc des Princes in the Champions League group stage. Marquinhos struggled in the opening 45 minutes of that match and was largely to blame for Luis Díaz’s second goal, a performance Hummels said showed he did not think the defender was ready for Bayern’s intense pressing or quite up to the pace.
That history matters now because Tuesday’s Champions League semi-final first leg again put Marquinhos in Bayern’s sights, with the return leg scheduled for next Wednesday in Munich and a place in the final at the end of May on the line. PSG have leaned on the Brazilian far less domestically this season, starting him in only one of the last nine league fixtures, but Luis Enrique has still used him in 12 of PSG’s 14 Champions League matches this campaign, a sign of how much the club still trusts him on the biggest nights.
That trust has not always been rewarded without drama. Marquinhos, who has been at PSG since 2013 and helped them win their first European crown last season, has also delivered decisive moments at this level, including a goal-line clearance at Liverpool in the quarter-final second leg that PSG won 2-0. But Bayern’s assessment is blunt: the PSG centre-back pairing of Marquinhos and Willian Pacho is good, Hummels said, just not on Bayern’s level.
So the tie now turns on whether Marquinhos can absorb the pressure that Bayern expect to apply again. If he can, PSG’s route to Budapest stays alive. If he cannot, Bayern may once more find the opening that was there in Paris.
