PSG in the Champions Trophy on January 8, PSG in Barcelona on October 1, PSG in the first leg against Strasbourg, from 1-3 to 3-3, the PSG always at the bottom has struck again. Clinging to a complicated draw, he fought again and again to secure three points which weigh heavily in the title race. The Alsatians ended the night at Doliprane and this morning, it was the Lensois who had a bit of a hangover, wondering what more they could do to become champion of France. Nothing, there is PSG.
Due to an expulsion of Achraf Hakimi fifteen minutes from time – he will miss the clasico next Sunday -, and an inability to transform its overall control (especially after half-time), Paris brought back a huge victory for Alsace. More than a success, even. A sort of signature dish which always decorates it with a star, whether that of the reigning French or European champion. Whatever place Paris draws, it chooses well.
A week before the reception of OM – if the club still exists as it is in the process of imploding -, this unexpected burst of beauty can relaunch the season, which does not choose between stagnation and progress like the course in the Champions League, with the opposite dynamic of last season. Let’s say that to start the final sprint, one more or more victory over Marseille would have the merit of putting them into orbit.
Enraged versus enraged. Strasbourg-PSG opposed the Parisian weaknesses of the moment against the energetic style, at 100,000 volts of the Alsatians, supercharged from start to finish. An athletic pressure which the Parisians could not resist, victims of a penalty then the equalizer while Senny Mayulu had opened the scoring between these two madcaps.
A performance with a thousand faces
Note that Matvey Safonov, the number 1 of the moment and perhaps of the end of the season, stopped Panichelli’s shot, remaining on a fifth in a row delivered to the sender, a stunning feat. But Paris delivered a performance with a thousand faces, sometimes punctured due to loose pressing or unusual technical waste, sometimes in total control with speed by Bradley Barcola (replaced at the hour mark by Kang-In Lee), and slippery calls from Mayulu.
It was like a bazaar: we found everything in PSG’s game, still handicapped by an inability to multiply the danger in the last thirty meters. Lately, he has the opportunities but doesn’t take them. This time, he did not manage to find relevant gaps, width with his full-backs and he crossed a lot while Mayulu and Mbaye are not known for their heading play.
At 1-1 and 10 against 11, with Strasbourg less crazy than in the first period but still threatening, PSG did the same thing as usual, superbly deployed at the Club World Cup at 9 against 11 against Bayern Munich (2-0). This is the eternal ability of Luis Enrique’s team to come back from a near-death experience.
We believe that he disappears and he returns from beyond the grave, this time from a cross from Warren Zaire-Emery for the head of Nuno Mendes (1-2, 81st), from the right side to the left, like the Strasbourg goal before the break. It is a new demonstration of the unique character of these European champions, never as strong as when we think they are buried. The sequel may turn out to be even more beautiful.
