PSG returns from Manchester with only one good news: it has qualified for the knockout stages of the Champions League thanks to the defeat of Bruges against Leipzig. But he did not really give assurances that he could do something huge in this competition, after a logical defeat against the men of Pep Guardiola, led against the course of the game in the 50th after the first goal of Kylian Mbappé.
In the fifth match of this group stage, the capital club has just lost its first match. Above all, he will not have done anything good outside, neither in Bruges, nor in Leipzig, nor in City (two draws, one setback), which condemns him to remain moored in this second and perilous place for the future. . In December in the draw and in 2022 when the cleaver matches will come, it will be too late to complain.
An inconstant collective
Paris must still receive Bruges but it is already finishing a bad European campaign with a happy victory over City in the first leg, sluggish against Leipzig and therefore not many sparks on the move. He did not behave like a European cador, sure of his strength.
In fact, Mauricio Pochettino’s team has remained what it has shown for several weeks: an inconstant collective, without a real game plan, helpless without one or two strong men like Marco Verratti. We have not learned anything new and we can not surprise either since the PSG does not look like anything identified since the start of the season.
After the break, the match became electric, with a PSG finally decided to meet the criteria of the Champions League, a little higher. The duel with City increased in intensity, with a more sustained fight, faults, a stage totally united in its songs for the real part induced in this poster between two formations which were gauged for the fourth time in 2021 since the spring. To be better did not require crazy efforts from Parisians.
And the blue waves were breaking …
Obviously, when you finish the first act with a shot on target, two saves on your line or almost and a post against you, the failure is complete. Paris thus began by not existing before its small return to the light. Unable to achieve clean ball exits, without managing to find links between the middle and the attack, PSG remained stuck in their part of the field to see the blue waves breaking, with Bernardo Silva and Riyad Mahrez as launched surfers.
Paris held, a little without knowing how, a little thanks to luck, a little then thanks to the solid Marquinhos-Kimpembe hinge, each in its own style, a little because of the lack of precision of the Citizens. Not at all due, on the other hand, to Ander Herrera, often overwhelmed by events and without hope of redemption in the use of the ball.
In front, the three artists waited in vain for balloons and, when they did, did not do much with them. Yet it was when Leo Messi looked for Neymar before overthrowing for Mbappé that Paris scored. When playing, PSG can be good. He should know that.
The match sheet
Half time: 0-0.
Spectators: 53,000.
Referee: M. Orsato (Ita).
Buts. City : Sterling (63e), Gabriel Jesus (76e). PSG : Mbappé (50e).
Warnings. City : Rodri (55e), Cancelo (80e), Gabriel Jesus (90e+2). PSG : Kimpembe (89e).
Manchester City : Ederson – Walker, Stones, Dias, Cancelo – Gündogan, Rodri, Zinchenko (G. Jesus, 54e) – Mahrez, B. Silva, Sterling. Entr. : Guardiola.
PSG: Navas – Hakimi, Marquinhos (ch.), Kimpembe, Nuno Mendes (Kehrer, 67e) – Herrera (Danilo, 61e), Paredes, Gueye (Di Maria, 67e) – Messi, Mbappé, Neymar. Entry : Pochettino.
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