The only good news of the evening is perhaps there. In the fact that they didn’t kill the suspense, that the championship is not dead. That by imitating Lens and OM who had missed the boat since respectively unable to snatch more than one point ahead of Troyes and Monaco, Paris did not weigh down the plot of a soap opera of which there are 18 episodes left to broadcast . For an alien foreign to the football planet, reading the rankings this Sunday evening, PSG could appear imperturbable, the dominant master of a French Championship at the top of which it sits three and five lengths ahead of the most serious competition.
The reality is less glorious, less pleasing too, as the profile displayed by Paris had everything dunce rather than top of the class during this 20th day. Long destitute, smug, out of luck in the head and in the legs, Paris was “punished” by Reims, twelfth in L1 who came to “snatch” him without there being anything to complain about the point of the draw at the last second this Sunday at the Parc des Princes. “Our first period was soporific, recognized Christophe Galtier at the microphone of Prime Video to explain the rout of his players. There was no rhythm, no intensity. We saw that we were in great difficulty. We suffered the events. »
One shot in 45 minutes
For the reunion of the MNM, the first outing of the Mbappé – Neymar – Messi trio since the success against Auxerre on November 13, we had the right to expect better than this ode to casualness, this display of sufficiency and this string of cold sweats that made the pitch look like ice pack in the first period. A single shot at the break on the Parisian side, a half-volley from Messi, sent into the clouds, that’s what the Parisians offered to their public. A shot in 45 minutes, the lowest total since 2018, while Balogun and his friends in Reims, 15th attack in Ligue 1, placed 7, forcing Donnarumma to watch the grain and save the furniture.
An abyssal, incomprehensible gap that only the entry of Marco Verratti, after the rest, will have a hair allowed to rebalance, the space of fourteen short minutes. The time for the Italian to bring a little pep, to see Messi’s counter strike benefit Neymar to open the scoring. But as a harbinger of what was to follow, Little Owl’s overly strong tackle on Ito sent him back to the locker room, less than a quarter of an hour after his entry into play.
At 10, Paris has paradoxically regained color. Not the net, unlike Balogun who, in the very last seconds of added time, offered Reims the deserved point of the draw. And plunged Paris into doubt when starting a series of 6 games in 16 days which suddenly appeared more dangerous than attractive. “I am responsible for these poor performances but there are also individual performances, concluded the coach. Many players are not at their level. There will be decisions to be made to find a stronger team A team that looks like a top team. »
