Football
Jonathan Johnson, PSG correspondent 6y

PSG to face Strasbourg without trio of Mbappe, Verratti and Trapp

PARIS -- Paris Saint-Germain will be without three regular starters at home to Strasbourg in Ligue 1 on Saturday, with Kylian Mbappe, Marco Verratti and Kevin Trapp all serving suspensions.

On top of that Yuri Berchiche has also been left out of coach Unai Emery's 18-man squad for the Parc des Princes clash.

The Spaniard does welcome back Thiago Motta, though, while Layvin Kurzawa is also in the group after he was left out altogether for the 3-1 defeat in the opening leg of PSG's Champions League round-of-16 tie with Real Madrid on Wednesday.

Les Parisiens will be aiming to get the loss at Santiago Bernabeu out of their system this weekend and in order to do so, Emery's men will need to make light of Mbappe, Verratti and Berchiche's absences.

The Frenchman is serving the additional match ban that he was handed after his recent red card, the first of his career, away at Rennes in the Coupe de la Ligue, while the Italian has accumulated too many bookings and Trapp was sent off away at Sochaux in the Coupe de France.

PSG, for the moment, have not specified why Berchiche has not been included in the squad and the player showed no signs or injury in Madrid and does not have any impending domestic suspensions.

Motta was left out of the squad for the Real clash for fitness reasons and his bid to be ready for the return leg could start against Strasbourg on Saturday.

Kurzawa was passed fit to travel to Madrid but was ultimately not even named a substitute, so should return to the starting XI with Berchcihe missing.

Unsurprisingly, Hatem Ben Arfa's exile continues and youth academy graduate Stanley N'Soki has also been left out.

Third-choice goalkeeper Sebastien Cibois, who regularly misses out, has been pushed up to a substitute slot with Trapp banned.

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