Paris Saint-Germain defender Marquinhos has admitted that it will be ‘even harder’ for the European champions to win the UEFA Champions League trophy this season.

They defeated Inter Milan in Munich two years ago, retained the title by defeating Arsenal on penalties in Budapest.

Luis Enrique’s side, which have started their domestic season unconvincingly, get their European campaign underway against Slovan Bratislava on Wednesday night.

Speaking ahead of PSG’s defense, Marquinhos said winning three in a row would be historic, admitting it it is very difficult.

“It’s very difficult to win one, [then] two, so to win three is so, so difficult. It is a matter of ambition and motivation. If we want to win, we have to have high expectations and maintain those high levels of expectation. Other teams have also recruited. It will be even more difficult to win compared to previous years,” he added.

The skipper added that they will fight from the very first match to show they can go far in this competition.

 The Brazilian international, who is amongst the Ballon d’Or nominees, is also hoping that a PSG player wins this year’s edition of the award again.

PSG has nine nominees for this year. The winner of the award will be announced in Paris on 26th October.

The organizers revealed the 30 nominees on Tuesday, nine of which are PSG players, as was the case last season, which also coincides with Les Parisiens winning the UEFA Champions League in back-to-back seasons.

He hopes one of Achraf Hakimi, Nuno Mendes, Vitinha, João Neves, Fabián Ruiz, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Willian Pacho, Marquinhos, and Ousmane Dembélé, the current holder, wins the prestigious trophy, awarded by France Football again.

Marquinhos added that a PSG player deserves to win it again, as the club has very good players and he can’t pick out one.

“ It is an individual award. We won important titles. I hope that it will be someone from PSG,” he added.