soccer

PSG get Lens clash postponed as LFP aids Champions League prep for Liverpool quarter-final

Yahoo Sports

The Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) have granted Paris Saint-Germain's request to postpone their Ligue 1 fixture with Lens, to aid their preparation for the club's Champions League quarter-final...

PSG get Lens clash postponed as LFP aids Champions League prep for Liverpool quarter-final The Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) have granted Paris Saint-Germain 's request to postpone their Ligue 1 fixture with Lens, to aid their preparation for the club's Champions League quarter-final with Liverpool . Title rivals Lens had objected to PSG's plea to move the game, which was scheduled for April 11th, between the club's two-legged Champions League tie against Liverpool. However, the LFP have agreed to reschedule the fixture for May 13th.

French football's authorities said the decision was made with the interest of the country's UEFA coefficient ranking in mind. Strasbourg's trip to ​Brest has also ​been moved to May 13 to help them ⁠prepare for their Europa Conference League quarter-final against ​Mainz. "These decisions are ​in line with the board of directors’ clear strategic aim of enabling France to retain its fifth place in the ​UEFA coefficient rankings, which secures four places in the ​UEFA Champions League," the LFP said in a statement.

Lens, who are just a point behind PSG in the title race, had said the postponement of league fixtures to favour Europe is a gradual 'relegation to the status' of France's top division. "It seems ​to us, in fact, that a worrying ​sentiment ⁠is taking hold: that of a French league gradually being relegated to the status of an adjustment variable at ⁠the ​whim of certain parties' European ​imperatives," Lens said in a statement earlier this week. The postpone means PSG will now have six days to prepare for their second leg against Liverpool on April 14th, with the first fixture scheduled for April 8th at the Parc des Princes.

Liverpool face Fulham in the Premier League in between those two fixtures.