By Sports Reporter/Doha


After qualifying for the semi-finals of the UEFA Women’s Champions League for the first time in the club’s history, the Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) women’s team travelled to Doha on March 29 and trained at Aspire Academy in order to prepare themselves for the upcoming game against defending champion VfL Wolfsburg.
The Paris Saint-Germain Women’s team is one of the powerhouses of the French ‘Division 1 Féminine’, having moved up another level over the past two seasons. With the arrival of a new coach, the experienced Farid Benstiti, who coached the Russian’s women national team before joining Paris in 2012, and with a number of international players, the squad keeps getting stronger and stronger each campaign.
This was the first time that the PSG’s Women Football Team travelled to Qatar and made Aspire Zone their temporary home. Over the four days, the French team was able to take full advantage of the state of art training and medical facilities at Aspire
Zone.
“The four days in Doha have been a fantastic experience for us. The facilities at Aspire Zone were just perfect, most clubs can only dream to have conditions like that and the trip was also a great opportunity for us to gather together as a team in Doha and get to know Qatar,” said head coach Farid Benstiti after the last training session at the indoor pitch of Aspire Dome on Thursday.
The programme for the squad of 22 players that contained players from France, Sweden, Germany, Italy and Costa Rica also took in a desert tour, a boat cruise off the coast, a visit to Katara and Souq Wakif as well as a special autograph session at the official Paris Saint-Germain store at Villaggio.
“This trip has been amazing, I have read about Aspire before, but I have never seen anything like it. I also liked what we saw of Doha and Katara also really impressed me. We will definitely take home a lot of good memories,” said Linda Bresonik, a two times World Cup-winner with Germany who joined PSG in 2012 from Duisburg.
For Paris Saint-Germain, succeeding in the UEFA Champions League is the number one objective this season.
“Wolfsburg is one of the best teams in Europe and defending champion but we also have a strong team and it could be an advantage for us that we play the first game in Germany,” said Bresonik, who also hoped for similar home crowd support as their quarter-finals when 12,000 fans saw them defeat Glasgow City 5-0.
“We have to give a hundred percent in every game in order to have a chance against Wolfsburg,” added Benstiti, who stressed the importance to get closer as a team in order to be successful at this high level.
“Wolfsburg has won the UEFA Women’s Champions League title two years in a row and they have a lot of experience at this level. For us it’s something new because it’s the first time we made it this far in this competition. Both teams have a lot of strong players in their team and at this level it’s the better team performance that decides overall success.”
In recent years, a number of prestigious clubs have visited Aspire Zone including Manchester United FC, the Great Britain Archery Team along with the US’s U17 Men’s Basketball Team. Aspire Zone will also be hosting this year Australian Swimming Team and Welsh Rugby team in July as well as the British Paralympic Athletics Team in October 2015.
Aspire Zone has successfully established itself as a leading training destination for some of the world’s top-tier athletes and sports clubs. As a world-class sporting organisation, it aims to nurture elite sporting talent by providing a year-round indoor climate controlled training facility.