Christophe Galtier happy to 'protect' PSG's World Cup-bound stars | OneFootball

Paris Saint-Germain manager Christophe Galtier commended his players for making it easy for him to ‘protect’ some stars during Sunday’s 5-0 trouncing of Auxerre.

Goals from Kylian Mbappé, Carlos Soler and Achraf Hakimi had the Ligue 1 leaders 3-0 up before the hour-mark, allowing the boss to ring the changes to avoid any unnecessary injuries ahead of the World Cup in Qatar.

And it also afforded substitutes Renato Sanches and Hugo Ekitike the opportunity to get on the scoresheet at the Parc des Princes.

Galtier insisted he saw no evidence of his players holding themselves back during the preparation for their final club game before the international tournament.

“Obviously without any player sending me a signal of concern, even fear, on this match my obsession was that my team be able to express themselves as freely as possible,” the 56-year-old said, per Le Parisien.

“In this sense, we did sessions so as not to be in this psychosis of this famous injury. In the three sessions of the week, I saw players invested. Today they gave a very nice answer.”

Galtier acknowledged that he was happy to wrap Lionel Messi and Neymar up in cotton wool once the three points had been secured.

“By scoring a lot of goals it makes the game less tough and less dangerous. From the moment my players made the difference, I focused on management,” he said.

“It would be a great sadness that one of my players who was to leave for the World Cup is injured. And I quickly made changes to protect each other.”

The win leaves PSG five points clear of nearest challengers Lens as the season takes a pause.