Former Juventus striker David Trezeguet says Paris Saint-Germain's chances of winning the Champions League have been hit by a lack of competition in France.
Ahead of their round-of-16 tie with Chelsea, the French champions currently sit 24 points clear at the top of Ligue 1. PSG are also through to the final of the Coupe de la Ligue and the quarterfinals of the Coupe de France, meaning they are on course to complete a second successive sweep of domestic silverware.
Manager Laurent Blanc was handed a new contract this week as a result of that success, but his former France teammate Trezeguet feels that PSG's dominance will not necessarily aid their hopes of going all the way in European competition.
"Sometimes your league can penalise you," Trezeguet told Le Parisien ahead of the release of his autobiography "Bleu Ciel" ("Blue Sky"). "It handicapped Juventus, not last year but the two seasons before that.
"Today in Italy, Napoli have obliged Juventus to raise their level and to have control throughout the season. The strength of Real Madrid is that Barcelona exists. And the same goes for [Lionel] Messi and [Cristiano] Ronaldo."
Blanc, meanwhile, feels that it is PSG's domestic fixture schedule that will jeopardise the club's chances of getting past Chelsea in the knockout stages of the Champions League.
PSG had tried to move Wednesday's Coupe de France game against Lyon in order to give them more rest ahead of the first leg of their tie against the English champions in Paris on Feb. 16.
That request was rejected but Blanc addressed the issue again after watching his side beat Lyon 3-0 at the Parc des Princes.
PSG return to action against Lille in Ligue 1 on Saturday and Blanc warned that he was so upset with the fixture pile-up that it would be better to avoid the subject.
"The schedule can't get any tighter than that," the former France boss told reporters. "We played a difficult match this evening, three days after a difficult match in Marseille.
"In six days we have an extremely important game that you're all waiting for and in two-and-a-half days we have a match that breaks up our preparation... This game would have required a few more days of preparation."