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4 small points, a third defeat after 5 days and a worrying 26th place. The observation is terrible but implacable after the new disillusionment of Paris Saint-Germain, this Tuesday evening, on the pitch of Bayern Munich (0-1). More than ever in danger on the European scene and now relegated to 6 points from the top 8 before moving to Salzburg, welcoming Manchester City and traveling to Stuttgart, the capital club has once again missed out on its subject. A logical defeat with multiple explanations, starting with the terrible blunder of Matvey Safonov, preferred to Gianluigi Donnarumma for this shock at the Allianz Arena. Rather reassuring throughout this meeting and author of several decisive saves (7 in total), the Russian, on the other hand, made a complete mistake on a new Bavarian corner. Embarrassed in his exit, the ex-Krasnodar player finally opened the scoring to Kim Min-Jae (1-0, 38th). It would, however, not be honest to justify everything by this simple fact of play.
Safonov misses, Dembélé sees red
If it is obviously detrimental to the final result of this meeting, this failure cannot, in fact, hide the collective difficulties displayed by the Rouge et Bleu on Bavarian soil. Overall dominated by a Bayern confident in its strengths (7th consecutive victory in all competitions without conceding a single goal), the Ile-de-France club has never really worried the Munich defense, except for this off-target strike from Warren Zaire-Emery and a few timid attempts from Ousmane Dembélé. Worse still, with a new tactical system (a sort of hybrid 4-5-1), the reigning French champions regularly suffered attacks from the German ogre (18 shots conceded). Seeming to be in difficulty with the organization decided by Luis Enrique, Joao Neves’ teammates finally saw their search for “balanced imbalance” transform into general disorder. A chaos where the defenders struggled against the FCB offensive armada, where the midfielders never really weighed and where the attackers were finally conspicuous by their absence.
Finally, and to make matters worse in this disaster scenario where Achraf Hakimi has rarely been pushed to his limits against a Kingsley Coman who is still so inspired against his former club, Ousmane Dembélé forced his teammates to play ten against eleven for the last thirty minutes of this shock. Already warned for protest at the end of the first period (37th), the former Barcelona player was guilty of a tackle deemed too rough by the evening official (55th). A decision considered harsh, adding to the palpable frustration of the Parisians at the final whistle, like Marquinhos, visibly annoyed by the refereeing of Istvan Kovacs. Present at the press conference, Luis Enrique stuck to a generally lucid analysis, recognizing in particular Bavarian superiority.
A qualification more than ever called into question
“In the first half, we weren’t very far away, but we weren’t able to contain their pressure. We couldn’t get the ball back in the opposing half. After the break, we had reason to hope by creating danger until the hour mark, then the expulsion (of Dembélé) was a serious error. Nevertheless, we stayed in the match until the end. In the end, Bayern deserved their victory.specified the Spanish technician a few minutes after his exit at the microphone of Canal +. “Responsibility is global, good or bad. We must not look for heroes or culprits. I don’t agree that we are looking for excuses. Our project is very interesting, very promising. Even when we lose, we want to attack. If anyone is responsible, it’s me. You found the culprit, I accept the criticism”. Weighed down by Safonov’s blunder, betrayed by the questionable and discussed choices of Luis Enrique, abandoned by a nervous Ousmane Dembélé and an invisible Bradley Barcola, Paris Saint-Germain could ultimately only give up their arms. What calls into question the Parisian qualification three days before the end of the League phase?
26th, PSG is, in any case, eliminated from the most prestigious European competition at the time of writing these lines. However, Joao Neves, passing through the mixed zone, refused to mention “a fear” regarding possible early elimination. An optimistic speech also given by his coach to the journalists present on site. “Everything I see in this project is interesting. I am responsible for the good and bad decisions. Rather than the three defeats, I prefer to talk about the three matches that remain to be played, three finals. We conceded too many points at home against teams who played worse than us. On the attack »launched the former coach of La Roja in particular. Under more pressure than ever, Paris Saint-Germain now has three finals to play against Salzburg, Manchester City and Stuttgart to reverse the trend. On the attack…
