Just one month before the Champions League round of 16 first leg against Real Sociedad, let’s start by noting the positive. Yes, PSG fulfilled its mission by winning in Lens, a land on which it had not won for ten years. Yes, he emerged victorious from his first shock of the year 2024 which was truly a test for the next deadlines.
Yes, Luis Enrique must be delighted to have in his ranks the prodigious Bradley Barcola who never stops scoring points and showing such disconcerting ease in his left lane. So much for the reasons for satisfaction, to which we can add that PSG is the big winner of the weekend since it now has an eight-point lead over its runner-up, OGC Nice.
For the rest, it still seems premature to move forward, this team is ready for the upcoming deadlines and is progressing at high speed even though it played a second period that was far from complete due to its lack of efficiency, even being moved behind while in numerical superiority for 45 minutes after Gradit’s expulsion. Until the 90th minute and a goal from Mbappé completing her team’s success, she played to scare herself.
Donnarumma, the parade that counts on penalties
This northern evening, largely warmed up by the clamor of a Lensois public always so faithful to the meeting, had also got off to a bad start. We believed for a few seconds that the Parisians had fallen back into their usual ways during the evenings that count and that they had resumed their dirty habits when Danilo came to collide with Elye Wahi in the penalty area in the 5th minute. Luis Enrique’s grimace in the second when the referee indicated the penalty point clearly reflected his frustration at seeing his team get into trouble all alone like a grown-up, so quickly.
Ready to shout their happiness, the die-hard northern fans were finally disillusioned when they saw Gianluigi Donnarumma reject the attempt of Przemyslaw Frankowski who had chosen to shoot forcefully in the middle. This opportunity could have launched the Lensois towards a new evening of madness, they who had become accustomed to bringing down the Parisians.
Ugarte finds himself, Barcola twirls
Ultimately, this missed penalty served as a sort of turning point. Without being really impressive in the game, nor authoritarian, Kylian Mbappé’s partners were able to make the end of the first period easier under the impetus of his individualities, in particular, a Manuel Ugarte found in midfield and much more impacting the recovery in recent weeks, and a twirling Bradley Barcola.
This PSG is still far from being a collective war machine, ready to roll on anything that moves, even more so when it counts such a low-impact Carlos Soler in its ranks. Luis Enrique’s desire to install him in the middle and move Warren Zaire-Emery into a hybrid position between the midfield and the right-back position, when he could have done the opposite, remains a mystery as it limits the influence of the French international in the play of his team which took a nosedive after returning from the locker room. One month before hosting Real Sociedad, Paris is reassured but is still far from making a strong impression.
