PSG – Maccabi Haifa – A festival of Messi, Neymar and Mbappé and Paris is qualified

An offensive recital and a ticket for the round of 16 validated for PSG. The Parisians signed a very large success on Maccabi Haifa, Tuesday, during the 5th day of the Champions League (7-2). Lionel Messi (19th and 44th), Kylian Mbappé (32nd and 64th), Neymar (35th) but also the unfortunate Sean Goldberg (csc, 67th) and Carlos Soler (84th) shook the visitors’ nets while Abdoulaye Seck also signed a double (38th and 50th). Thanks to this victory, PSG qualify for the knockout phase like Benfica who beat Juventus in a slightly less prolific but tighter match (4-3).

As in the first leg, PSG was however jostled by the Israelis who carried out intense and high pressing from the kick-off. If they kept better and turned the ball around this time, the Parisians were still able to count on the exceptional talent of their attacking trio. Fabian Ruiz, still very interesting in the midfield, was unable to convert an offering from Neymar because of too long a control in the zone of truth (9th).

Messi does not know this kind of technical problem. Following a new incursion from his Spanish teammate and good work from Mbappé at the penalty spot, he dropped the ball into Josh Cohen’s right corner with a sumptuous outside left foot (1-0, 19th).

Bright Messi

The MNM festival was on and Neymar became a passer for Mbappé who imitated Messi by subtly rolling his right foot to the left of the opposing area to double the lead (2-0, 32nd). In the process, Neymar, served by Messi thanks to a call from Mbappé, joined the party for a second personal goal in C1 this season (3-0, 35th).

Paris had taken off but relaxed and was immediately punished with a well-negotiated Israeli free kick on the left and a header from the powerful Seck at the far post (3-1, 38th). The sparkling Messi, however, put PSG back in the right direction before the break by combining with Mbappé in the middle before making a small laser hook of which he has the secret and placing the ball out of reach of Cohen (4-1 , 44th).

Maccabi, however, took advantage of the half-time to catch their breath and their spirits. He attacked hard in the second period and Seck put it back with a good header following a corner to reduce the score again (4-2, 50th). Barak Bakhar’s players revived and a certain vagueness floated for a quarter of an hour in this meeting, which has become disputed again. PSG however definitely unfolded by getting out of the opposing pressing cleanly thanks to Renato Sanches and Sergio Ramos who allowed Achraf Hakimi to cross towards Mbappé whose curled shot ended up in the back of the net (5-2, 64th). The Frenchman is already at 6 achievements in this European campaign.

Soler opens his counter with PSG

The Israelis had ended up physically cracking during the first round (Parisian victory 1-3), they displayed the same limits and suffered the same fate on the lawn of the Parc des Princes. After a lot of work from Neymar on the left of the truth zone, Goldberg pushed the ball into his own net (6-2, 67th). Christophe Galtier was thus able to rotate and his team remained sharp. Messi found the crossbar after a nice exchange with Mbappé (77th).

Launched at the end of the match with Warren Zaire-Emery and Presnel Kimpembe (78th), Hugo Ekitike, for his part, stumbled twice on the Maccabi goalkeeper (80th and 82nd). Coming into play a little earlier (68th), Carlos Soler scored his first goal with PSG with a powerful grazing axial strike after a service from Messi which ended the evening with two goals and as many assists ( 7-2, 84th). For the 11th year in a row, PSG will see the knockout stages of the C1. To find out if it will be in the shoes of a group winner, he will have to fight one last fight on the lawn of Juventus in a week.