for PSG against Barça, the coin fell on the wrong side – Libération

Paris-SG lost to FC Barcelona (2-3) this Wednesday at the Parc des Princes in the quarter-final first leg of the Champions League. If the result is for the Catalans, the outcome of this match could have tilted in favor of Mbappé’s teammates.

This is what the last rounds of the Champions League show now. Turnarounds, brilliance everywhere, gestures that would have once been events but which flood the games by the carload, a mental strength which allows players to come back even faster than they disappeared… No one left to break the game, run the clock; parts with open tombs, full throttle on the exterior peripherals. Beaten at the Parc (2-3) by FC Barcelona at the end of a magnificent game this Wednesday evening, Paris-SG could just as easily have won but one thing can still bother them: the number of shots from Kylian Mbappé between the 12th minute and the 88th, i.e. zero; and the mediocre match of PSG’s Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, yet their most reliable player for months.

The start of the match being balanced, it was necessary to take out the magnifying glass: a superior capacity of the locals to put their players aside (Nuno Mendes, Dembélé, Mbappé) in one on one against the opposing defenders, promised to suffer given the quality exceptional individual of the Parisian arrows. It was necessary to understand that the transmissions on the PSG side were livelier, faster. A botched exit from the French champions’ goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma forced Nuno Mendes to release a hot ball in front of his goal line (20th) but the meaning of the match was fragile, each counter ball triggering the devil’s defensive aggressiveness (yellow card for the Catalan Sergio Roberto, 33rd) as the risks of leaving spaces are great.

The Catalans will be the first to exploit one. At the beginning there was an undulation triggered from the central circle by the Polish center forward Robert Lewandowski: his timing of the pass and his technical finesse isolated the young (16 year old) right winger Lamine Yamal who, instead of attacking his defender with the ball at foot like Dembélé and Mbappé never stop doing, crosses in front of his opponent. Donnarumma’s vision is blurring and Raphinha, the former Rennais (hey! yes), puts his team in control (0-1, 37th).

A loan for a return

The visitors lead the lemons, Luis Enrique takes out Asensio (for Bradley Barcola) and if nothing is serious at this stage, the Parisian players are up against the wall. The one who is going to knock him down was less likely to do so than many others: Dembélé, one goal in eight and a half months in the Parisian jersey before Wednesday, connects a fake shot from the right before a praline from the left (1- 1, 48e). The Paris-SG international striker strikes indifferently with both feet, it’s normal that we were mistaken.

Two minutes later, Barcola opens the main boulevards on the right side and Vitinha puts Paris-SG in front (2-1, 51st) in a Parc des Princes which is shaking on its bases. In truth, it all doesn’t make much sense. Wonderfully launched by Pedri, ex-little wonder of Spanish football tormented by injuries for three years, Raphinha brings his team back to the level of a volley (2-2, 63rd) and the game is not at great balance , to the conquest of possession of the ball or to a superior determination in the impact, but to a personal exploit of a Catalan or Parisian player. Thus, a superb pass (slightly retro) from Vitinha opens the goal for Barcola, which sees Araujo take out his shot (70th) from a tackle to dehorn a buffalo – one loan for one return, one gesture for another.

And everyone on a thread, above the void. The Parisians will fall there: a corner taken from the left and Donnarumma, decidedly in small form, sees Danish defender Andres Christensen poke his head inside 5.50 meters (2-3, 77th). The coin could have fallen on the other side, Barça still showed that it had its napkin ring at a level (the quarterfinals of the Champions League) that it had not visited for four years but deep down , who doubted it? Return match on April 16 in Spain, in Montjuich.