Paris Saint-Germain’s Twelfth French Champion Title Celebration Delayed as they Draw with Valiant Le Havre

Paris Saint-Germain will have to wait a little longer to celebrate their twelfth French champion title. At the Parc des Princes, the defending champion was caught by a valiant team from Le Havre in a match with twists and turns for the 31st day of Ligue 1 (3-3). Trailing 1-0 then 3-1, PSG snatched the point from the draw thanks to a goal from incoming Gonçalo Ramos in added time. Entering at the break, Kylian Mbappé did not score. At the end of the weekend, Paris can still be crowned champion tomorrow if AS Monaco does not win at Olympique Lyonnais.

Twenty years ago, Paris Saint-Germain celebrated their second French championship title on the pitch of the Jules-Deschaseaux stadium in Le Havre. Twenty years later, the Parisians had the opportunity to repeat this performance on home soil against the HAC. This ultimately did not happen, the fault of an opponent who came to the capital to bring back a positive result with a view to maintaining. It was PSG’s 700th match since the club was taken over by QSI, but this anniversary was spoiled by a very inspired Norman collective. It’s very simple: the promoted team scored three times in a single L1 match while the oldest club had only scored four goals in the last ten days. But this evening in Paris, Le Havre had enough aggression to obtain a well-deserved point.

Bradley Barcola facing Loic Nego during the duel between PSG and Le Havre

Credit: Getty Images

A first in 14 years

From the first minutes, the observation was clear: Paris kept the ball and the HAC defended as a unit. However, the Ciel et Marine showed a very realistic face to score on their first shot on target of the match thanks to Christopher Operi (19th, 0-1). Touched in its pride, Paris found the fault for the first time in the Le Havre defense when Bradley Barcola propelled Warren Zaire-Emery’s cross into the back of the net (29th, 1-1). The beginning of the end for Le Havre? No way. On the contrary, André Ayew came to freeze the stadium with a tense shot at the near post to surprise Keylor Navas (38th, 1-2).

With the entries of Mbappé, Kang-in Lee and Senny Mayulu returning from the locker room, a desire for revolt was visible in the changes made by Luis Enrique. However, it was the visitors who made the break following a penalty obtained by Loïc Nego and transformed with a perfect counterattack by Abdoulaye Touré (61st, 1-3). Ultra-dominant in possession of the ball but not sharp enough in its offensives, PSG seemed incapable of getting back into the match. It was ultimately thanks to Ramos that things evolved. The Portuguese striker first reduced the gap to his partner Achraf Hakimi (78th, 2-3), then the center forward showed his sense of goal to deceive Arthur Desmas with a clever shot lead (95th, 3-3). So certainly, Paris had not conceded three goals at home since May 15, 2010 against Montpellier. It was before the takeover of QSI, another era. But at least the Parisians were able to fight back so as not to suffer a second defeat this season in L1 before returning to Dortmund.

2024-04-27 21:09:00
#Ligue #31st #day #coronation #delayed #PSG #snatches #draw #Havre