It is the sort of fixture that should provide the most soothing balm.

Lorient are Ligue 1’s basement barnacles, glued to the bottom of the French first division since their wretched campaign began, six points adrift of safety.

It is the kind of place Paris Saint-Germain have become accustomed to travelling to and winning with their eyes closed.

But the PSG who go there tomorrow night are traumatised, history-makers for all the wrong reasons after they became the first team in the long history of the European Cup knockout ties to not turn a 4-0 first-leg advantage into progress.

PSG are now “losers XXL”, wrote the Paris newspaper Liberation of the remarkable 6-1 defeat inflicted by Barcelona in Catalonia on Wednesday.

The club who have become known for their extra-large margins of victory in French domestic football, their extra-early sealing of league titles are marked out in European terms for how they folded on a famous night in March.

“It’s a defeat that is going to make news around the world,” said Thiago Silva, the PSG captain. “And that’s hard.”

__________________________________

Read more

■ From Barcelona: Fans spur team to greatest of comebacks

■ Predictions: Chelsea set for shock defeat to Manchester United

■ Xabi Alonso: Will be remembered as a great teammate on great teams

__________________________________

The captain’s own performance in central defence against Barca will not be one he ever chooses to include in his personal highlights portfolio either.

The notoriety that Barcelona 6-1 PSG leaves with the losers hurts PSG’s wealthy backers. Since substantial sums of Qatari sovereign wealth were poured into the upsizing of PSG — whose budget of more than €500 million (Dh1.95 billion) a season dwarfs any other Ligue 1 side — the club’s wealthy employees have had a barely disguised duty to promote the image of Qatar, which will host the World Cup in 2022.

There has been an expectation that the only top-flight club from the French capital should flex its muscles in the most glamorous club competition in sport, the Uefa Champions League, and make Paris — and Qatar — as important a compass point in the sport as Madrid, Munich or Barcelona.

What happened at Camp Nou put the XXL ambitions into the worst sort of shrinkage.

While PSG’s manager, Unai Emery, had cause to believe the luck of refereeing decisions tilted heavily in favour of a Barcelona who might have conceded at least two penalties and were awarded two themselves, the PSG who conceded three goals after the 86th minute looked terrified, afflicted by a rare sort of vertigo.

This is the condition Emery, now carrying the burden of being the first manager in five years to fail to take the club into the last eight of Champions League, must address immediately.

Besides the scorn — PSG players were greeted by angry fans when they returned from Barcelona and midfielder Thiago Motta reportedly hit a fan with his car — there is the urgent need to remedy a season that may fall short of target.

Not just on one front, European competition, but on two.

PSG go into spring in a rare position of not being the Ligue 1 front-runners.

Monaco, who play Bordeaux this afternoon, might be six points ahead of PSG by the time the champions kick off at Lorient. Emery knows his team selection will be scrutinised with unusual rigour.

L’Equipe reported that senior players Marco Verratti and Blaise Matuidi were out late at a nightspot the night before PSG travelled to Catalonia.

This also hands Emery unwanted question about internal discipline and a perceived culture of complacency in a squad used to dominating domestic competitions.

Questions about Emery’s future have already been put to Nasser Al Khelaifi, the PSG president.

“Now is not the time to think about that, it’s not a decision that should be taken emotionally,” he said on his way out of Camp Nou on Wednesday.

The dressing-room mood, said the full-back Thomas Muenier, was like a “funeral”.

Unlikely as it might have seemed when PSG embarked on the defence of their fourth successive Ligue 1 title seven months ago, their away game at Lorient now looks like vital moment, for lifting the gloom.

Player of the week

At the San Siro on Saturday, there will be divided loyalties. The family of Inter Milan's Roberto Gagliardini have a strong affection for Atalanta, not least because he grew up with the club.

• Bergamo boy: Gagliardini was born in Bergamo, home of Atalanta, and came up through the ranks of a club respected for their excellent youth system and distinguished list of graduates. At AC Milan, former Atalanta academy men such Giacomo Bonaventura and Riccardo Montolivo are mainstays. Inter quietly hope they have in Gagliardini a complete midfielder than either.

• Rapid rise: Inter signed the 22-year-old in the January transfer window after only 14 Serie A appearances for Atalanta, whose first team Gagliardini only truly broke into earlier this season.

• Pioli’s most trusted: When Atalanta hosted Inter in October, Gagliardini helped the hosts to a 2-1 win, exacerbating the crisis that lead to Inter replacing Frank de Boer as manager with Stefano Pioli. Pioli welcomed Gagliardini’s arrival and has made him his preferred choice in central midfield.

• Box to box: The qualities Pioli values, and which the Atalanta manager Gian Piero Gasperini put faith as Atalanta began their climb up the Serie A table to their lofty perch of fifth spot going into this weekend, are Gagliardini’s sound tackling, his stamina, his comfort on the ball and his fine range of passing. The tall midfielder also has a turn of pace, and an accurate shot, as he showed in last weekend’s 5-1 win at Cagliari, where he scored his first Inter goal from the edge of the penalty area.

sports@thenational.ae

Follow us on Twitter @NatSportUAE

Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/TheNationalSport