The Botafogo closed accident, PSG spins the round of 16 of this extension of the hormone clubs. And even finished at the top of his group. We will have to wait for the results of the night from Monday to Tuesday, in France, to discover its opponent next Sunday for the switch to direct elimination matches.
At the end of the weekend, the European champion can finally put his shorts from the holidays or, he hopes, keep that of the competition to aim for the quarters, the half and so on.
To achieve his ends, he hits the modest Americans from Seattle Sounders, between an end of the Ligue 1 table and the top of Ligue 2, with a first goal on a stopped kick and a second in transition, a sign that the position game did not always find the key in this match first padlocked before opening, a photo that we know well by following the Parisian adventure of the season.
Luis Enrique feared a form of failure, forcing five of his best field players to chain a third group match in a row, a rarity in a World Cup. Willian Pacho, Achraf Hakimi (goalscorer, 2-0, 67th), Vitinha, Désiré Doué and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia will go to care in the coming hours in order to recharge. Aside from the attackers on this list, coaching does not really concern them, often pushing them to compete in the 90 full minutes.
Before and after the first goal, PSG had a hard time deploying its game for an obvious reason: a lack of physical and perhaps mental freshness, as if the Parisians had a little fed up with this extension season or this first round with Ligue 1 hints, with low blocks waiting and try to prick against.
The arrival of the clearance matches, with no doubt more spaces, may give more relief to PSG performances, which will also recover two fresh attackers, Bradley Barcola, little used since his knee injury with the French team (he replaced Khvicha Kvaratskhelia in the 63rd), and Ousmane Dembélé, absent from France-Espagne on June 5 nations.
The return of Ousmane Dembélé will do good
In this closed context, the technical errors have then multiplied, with passes in a setback, individual or collective choices dedicated to failure, unscrewed or soft strikes. Some players have embodied these difficulties with an Achraf Hakimi seeming to las, a João Neves sometimes late, a Khvicha Kvaratskhelia renouncing one against one, before wake up on the return from the locker room.
Only Désiré Goué has become constantly multiplied, obtaining the corner of the goal, rushing 70 m to recover balloons in front of its surface and unchecking the first comics with a dry strike diverted by Stefan Frei (12th), the Swiss goalkeeper. He will miss a huge situation after the break, on a caviar from the Georgian, launched in depth, the coming spaces. Nuno Mendes, who had blown during the meeting against Botafogo, took advantage of his rest to turn the fire in his legs.
In the opposing density, Senny Mayulu, installed in false number 9, found no place more than Gonçalo Ramos. In this role, to avoid pincers, creativity is needed, a technique above and permanent mobility, the qualities of Ousmane Dembélé, not of his two competitors of the moment. His return, a priori progressive, will allow the whole team to find landmarks and play circuits, necessarily good news for Luis Enrique. It is now that he needs it most.
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