Mauricio Pochettino valiantly tried to deflect some of the pressure but the Paris Saint-Germain boss was fooling nobody.
'PSG have been waiting to win this tournament for over 50 years. We are the challengers - it's the opponents who have made a habit of winning the competition,' he said on the eve of their mouth-watering Champions League tie with Real Madrid.
Seeking to paint PSG - backed by their Qatari billions, with a forward line of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe - as the plucky underdogs was quite the psychological ploy.