{"id":1131178,"date":"2020-02-16T18:26:25","date_gmt":"2020-02-16T18:26:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?p=1131178"},"modified":"2020-02-16T18:29:19","modified_gmt":"2020-02-16T18:29:19","slug":"psg-neymar-mbappe-di-maria-icardi-fantastic-four","status":"publish","type":"features","link":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/psg-neymar-mbappe-di-maria-icardi-fantastic-four\/","title":{"rendered":"Neymar, Mbappe, Di Maria & Icardi: PSG’s all-star attack aiming to halt Dortmund bandwagon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Borussia Dortmund are flavour of the month ahead of the return of the Champions League \u2013 but Paris Saint-Germain will be determined to ensure Erling Haaland and co<\/a>‘s bandwagon comes to an abrupt halt in the last-16.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thomas Tuchel’s side have been labelled serial underachievers in recent years and they will need to be at their best to avoid yet another early exit at the hands of their Bundesliga rivals.<\/p>\n

In many ways the two clubs are polar opposites, with PSG usually opting to spend big on ready-made superstars in an attempt to finally secure Europe’s most prestigious club trophy while Dortmund’s principles lie with the promotion of youth.<\/p>\n

So, as two of Europe’s most exciting \u2013 and attacking \u2013 teams prepare to do battle at the Westfalenstadion on Tuesday night<\/a>, what kind of form are\u00a0PSG’s key players in?<\/p>\n

Are they firing on all cylinders? Or could they struggle to up their respective games to the required level given that they are operating in a so-called farmer’s league? Squawka has taken a look at some stand-out statistics to find out….<\/p>\n

Watch the video at the top of the article to learn more about PSG’s Fantastic Four.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Neymar<\/h2>\n

A prolific scorer and creator of goals, his mesmeric dribbling ability has bamboozled countless opponents in Europe’s elite club competition ever since his debut: 33 goals and 22 assists in 55 appearances is a direct goal involvement per appearance on average.<\/p>\n

The Brazilian is a divisive figure, but you can’t question his talent.<\/p>\n

\"Neymar<\/p>\n

Kylian Mbappe<\/h2>\n

Mbappe has been directly involved in 30 Champions League goals (19 goals and 11 assists) in his first 30 appearances in the competition.<\/p>\n

Blessed with electric speed, excellent technical attributes and a veteran’s awareness of the optimum goal-scoring positions to take up, the Frenchman is on course to continue shattering records.<\/p>\n

Angel Di Maria<\/h2>\n

The 32-year-old knows what it takes to reach the latter stages, having produced a Man of the Match display in the 2014 final as Real beat Madrid rivals Atl\u00e9tico 4-1.<\/p>\n

It may not have worked out at Manchester United<\/span> but since the start of the 2018\/19 season, Jadon Sancho and Lionel Messi<\/span> are the only other players with 20+ league goals and 20+ league assists in Europe’s top five divisions.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Mauro Icardi<\/h2>\n

The Argentine (somehow) only made his Champions League debut last season but has proven he was always capable of playing at the top level with nine goals in his first 12 appearances in Europe’s elite club competition.<\/p>\n

MI9 is the ultimate poacher and \u2013 potentially \u2013 the final piece in the Parisian puzzle as they look to silence the critics and avoid getting knocked out at the last 16 stage for the fourth consecutive season.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to\u00a0Squawka\u2019s Youtube channel here<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 we\u2019re closing in on 100k subscribers!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Borussia Dortmund are flavour of the month ahead of the return of the Champions League \u2013 but Paris Saint-Germain will be determined to ensure Erling Haaland and co‘s bandwagon comes to an abrupt halt in the last-16. Thomas Tuchel’s side have been labelled serial underachievers in recent years and they will need to be at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":355,"featured_media":1131202,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"Dortmund vs PSG: Neymar and Co. aiming to shed 'underachievers' label","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"PSG have been labelled underachievers in recent years but Neymar, Mbappe, Di Maria and Icardi are out to change that vs Dortmund. | Squawka","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"features-category":[],"squawka-category":[],"class_list":["post-1131178","features","type-features","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"external_featured_image_url":"","hide_featured_image_pattern":false},"yoast_head":"\nDortmund vs PSG: Neymar and Co. aiming to shed 'underachievers' label<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"PSG have been labelled underachievers in recent years but Neymar, Mbappe, Di Maria and Icardi are out to change that vs Dortmund. | Squawka\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/psg-neymar-mbappe-di-maria-icardi-fantastic-four\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Neymar, Mbappe, Di Maria & Icardi: PSG's all-star attack aiming to halt Dortmund bandwagon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"PSG have been labelled underachievers in recent years but Neymar, Mbappe, Di Maria and Icardi are out to change that vs Dortmund. | Squawka\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/psg-neymar-mbappe-di-maria-icardi-fantastic-four\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Squawka | EN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SquawkaFootballNews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-02-16T18:29:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2020\/02\/16182858\/psg-fantastic-four.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"262\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@squawka\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/psg-neymar-mbappe-di-maria-icardi-fantastic-four\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/psg-neymar-mbappe-di-maria-icardi-fantastic-four\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Squawka News\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/b6f50937daba73c196b4aa35c5a33117\"},\"headline\":\"Neymar, Mbappe, Di Maria & Icardi: PSG’s all-star attack aiming to halt Dortmund bandwagon\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-02-16T18:26:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-02-16T18:29:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/psg-neymar-mbappe-di-maria-icardi-fantastic-four\/\"},\"wordCount\":478,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/psg-neymar-mbappe-di-maria-icardi-fantastic-four\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2020\/02\/16182858\/psg-fantastic-four.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Features\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/psg-neymar-mbappe-di-maria-icardi-fantastic-four\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/psg-neymar-mbappe-di-maria-icardi-fantastic-four\/\",\"name\":\"Dortmund vs PSG: Neymar and Co. aiming to shed 'underachievers' label\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/psg-neymar-mbappe-di-maria-icardi-fantastic-four\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/psg-neymar-mbappe-di-maria-icardi-fantastic-four\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2020\/02\/16182858\/psg-fantastic-four.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-02-16T18:26:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-02-16T18:29:19+00:00\",\"description\":\"PSG have been labelled underachievers in recent years but Neymar, Mbappe, Di Maria and Icardi are out to change that vs Dortmund. | Squawka\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/psg-neymar-mbappe-di-maria-icardi-fantastic-four\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/psg-neymar-mbappe-di-maria-icardi-fantastic-four\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/psg-neymar-mbappe-di-maria-icardi-fantastic-four\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2020\/02\/16182858\/psg-fantastic-four.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2020\/02\/16182858\/psg-fantastic-four.jpg\",\"width\":480,\"height\":262,\"caption\":\"Dortmund vs PSG: Fantastic Four video\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/psg-neymar-mbappe-di-maria-icardi-fantastic-four\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Squawka\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Features\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Neymar, Mbappe, Di Maria & Icardi: PSG’s all-star attack aiming to halt Dortmund bandwagon\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/\",\"name\":\"Squawka | EN\",\"description\":\"Football News, Stats, and More...\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/b6f50937daba73c196b4aa35c5a33117\",\"name\":\"Squawka News\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cfa7cf47c4373876c67ab4c5932999d53b9851b08cebc3aa0a975dfaaa96b2fb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cfa7cf47c4373876c67ab4c5932999d53b9851b08cebc3aa0a975dfaaa96b2fb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Squawka News\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/author\/squawkanews\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Dortmund vs PSG: Neymar and Co. aiming to shed 'underachievers' label","description":"PSG have been labelled underachievers in recent years but Neymar, Mbappe, Di Maria and Icardi are out to change that vs Dortmund. | Squawka","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/psg-neymar-mbappe-di-maria-icardi-fantastic-four\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Neymar, Mbappe, Di Maria & Icardi: PSG's all-star attack aiming to halt Dortmund bandwagon","og_description":"PSG have been labelled underachievers in recent years but Neymar, Mbappe, Di Maria and Icardi are out to change that vs Dortmund. | Squawka","og_url":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/psg-neymar-mbappe-di-maria-icardi-fantastic-four\/","og_site_name":"Squawka | EN","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SquawkaFootballNews\/","article_modified_time":"2020-02-16T18:29:19+00:00","og_image":[{"width":480,"height":262,"url":"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2020\/02\/16182858\/psg-fantastic-four.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@squawka","twitter_misc":{"Estimated reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/psg-neymar-mbappe-di-maria-icardi-fantastic-four\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/psg-neymar-mbappe-di-maria-icardi-fantastic-four\/"},"author":{"name":"Squawka News","@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/b6f50937daba73c196b4aa35c5a33117"},"headline":"Neymar, Mbappe, Di Maria & Icardi: PSG’s all-star attack aiming to halt Dortmund bandwagon","datePublished":"2020-02-16T18:26:25+00:00","dateModified":"2020-02-16T18:29:19+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/psg-neymar-mbappe-di-maria-icardi-fantastic-four\/"},"wordCount":478,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/psg-neymar-mbappe-di-maria-icardi-fantastic-four\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2020\/02\/16182858\/psg-fantastic-four.jpg","articleSection":["Features"],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/psg-neymar-mbappe-di-maria-icardi-fantastic-four\/","url":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/psg-neymar-mbappe-di-maria-icardi-fantastic-four\/","name":"Dortmund vs PSG: Neymar and Co. aiming to shed 'underachievers' label","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/psg-neymar-mbappe-di-maria-icardi-fantastic-four\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/psg-neymar-mbappe-di-maria-icardi-fantastic-four\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2020\/02\/16182858\/psg-fantastic-four.jpg","datePublished":"2020-02-16T18:26:25+00:00","dateModified":"2020-02-16T18:29:19+00:00","description":"PSG have been labelled underachievers in recent years but Neymar, Mbappe, Di Maria and Icardi are out to change that vs Dortmund. | Squawka","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/psg-neymar-mbappe-di-maria-icardi-fantastic-four\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/psg-neymar-mbappe-di-maria-icardi-fantastic-four\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/psg-neymar-mbappe-di-maria-icardi-fantastic-four\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2020\/02\/16182858\/psg-fantastic-four.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2020\/02\/16182858\/psg-fantastic-four.jpg","width":480,"height":262,"caption":"Dortmund vs PSG: Fantastic Four video"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/psg-neymar-mbappe-di-maria-icardi-fantastic-four\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Squawka","item":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Features","item":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Neymar, Mbappe, Di Maria & Icardi: PSG’s all-star attack aiming to halt Dortmund bandwagon"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/","name":"Squawka | EN","description":"Football News, Stats, and More...","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/b6f50937daba73c196b4aa35c5a33117","name":"Squawka News","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cfa7cf47c4373876c67ab4c5932999d53b9851b08cebc3aa0a975dfaaa96b2fb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cfa7cf47c4373876c67ab4c5932999d53b9851b08cebc3aa0a975dfaaa96b2fb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Squawka News"},"url":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/author\/squawkanews\/"}]}},"yoast_title":"Dortmund vs PSG: Neymar and Co. aiming to shed 'underachievers' label","yoast_description":"PSG have been labelled underachievers in recent years but Neymar, Mbappe, Di Maria and Icardi are out to change that vs Dortmund. | Squawka","yoast_keyword":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/features\/1131178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/features"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/features"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/features\/1131178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1131202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1131178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1131178"},{"taxonomy":"features-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/features-category?post=1131178"},{"taxonomy":"squawka-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/squawka-category?post=1131178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}