Since Luis Enrique loves to see the glass half full, it has not escaped his notice that his team temporarily regained the lead in Ligue 1 this Friday evening in Auxerre. While waiting for its two pursuers Lens, now two points behind, and Marseille to face each other on Saturday, PSG has regained its throne and has given itself a little fresh air after having struggled for a long time to overcome AJA (1-0).
Some matches count more than others in a championship and if Luis Enrique’s men really did not make the copy of the season any brighter and did not correct all their problems, this success has the merit of restoring some order to the Parisian house. And to approach Wednesday’s big meeting against Newcastle in the Champions League, with a little more confidence, three days after falling against Sporting.
From Portugal to Burgundy, PSG has long carried around its ineffectiveness in front of goal, which is once again becoming a bad habit, and has not managed to shed this heavy weight which is ruining its life a little more than usual. Like a sense of deja vu. Luis Enrique had decided to tackle the problem head on by lining up four attackers at the kick-off: Mbaye, just returned from his CAN coronation with Senegal, Barcola, Kvaratskhelia and Ramos. But this “sport of m…” would frankly be too simple if it were enough to pile up the offensive players to trigger an avalanche of goals and for PSG to find its champagne football in Yonne.
The Barcola paradox
As paradoxical as it may seem, it was Bradley Barcola, symbol of this technical waste and the lack of realism of his team, who offered the three points of victory by finally winning a duel with the Auxerre goalkeeper (80th). We believed that this moment would never arrive as the former Lyonnais seemed to live until then an endless day, the one where he replays the same actions which end most of the time without achievement. The number 29 could have perfectly started his team’s evening, but he poorly negotiated his face-to-face with goalkeeper Donovan Léon (2nd) before coming up against the Auxerre goalkeeper again. His copy was frankly indigestible with two new misses (50th, 63rd), before this very important goal which allowed him to remove the label of serial failure.
The winger was not the only one to blame in this “inefficiency operation”. Gonçalo Ramos, always so uninspired when he starts, was not killer enough on a header (30th), while Ibrahim Mbaye, less enterprising than with his selection, lacked conviction on an opportunity in the area (36th). Even Désiré Doué, who entered the hour mark with Ousmane Dembélé, participated in this festival of failures by missing a golden opportunity (75th), without conviction and as a dilettante, reflecting his current bad luck.
The matches have followed one another in recent weeks and they are very similar, with a dominant PSG, sometimes surprised during opposing counter-attacks not always well negotiated by Auxerre (12th, 23rd, 28th, 56th), but which struggles to deploy its elusive game and to be creative. Failing to shine, the European champions remain a team which never falls twice in a row and which has done the job to maintain its rank in Ligue 1. Another intense, physical, fierce fight awaits them on Wednesday evening at the Parc des Princes against the Magpies. Paris will have to turn up the volume at the next corner.
Worth a look
