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7 months ago
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Very happy to have defeated Real Sociedad on December 18 after finishing second in their group, Paris Saint-Germain arrives in the moneytime of their season. Luis Enrique and the entire red and blue club may have announced that the C1 is no longer a priority, this round of 16 first leg at the Parc des Princes remained a highly anticipated meeting. Favorite at kick-off against a diminished Basque team, the capital club fielded a rather classic starting eleven, but with a big surprise. An indisputable starter, Lucas Hernandez started on the sidelines, making way for another Lucas, the Brazilian winter recruit Beraldo. Before the start of the meeting, to explain this surprise, Canal+ mentioned a muscular problem in the thigh for the 2018 world champion.
Happy with the draw, Paris knew however that this Basque team was not easy to play. Inter, whom the Basques held to a draw in the group stage, can attest to this. And this was confirmed from the start of the match. La Real carried out a very high pressure, one against one, from the start, forcing the Parisians to make initial errors causing some shivers to run through the stands of the Park on a strike from André Silva (1st). The Basques also greatly hampered the Ile-de-France revivals by putting much more impact in the duels. For the rest, they were content with long restarts and taking advantage of the low Parisian intensity to win the second balls and serve a Kubo who often came to manhandle Beraldo. The left flank of the Ile-de-France defense was also the area chosen almost exclusively by Real to attack Paris, as evidenced by the alerts in the 18th and 22nd minutes with Kubo in charge.
Barcola lightning hit Real Madrid
On the Parisian side, the results were not necessarily brilliant, as is often the case when PSG is opposed to this type of team. Apart from the duel missed by Kylian Mbappé against Remiro (6th), Luis Enrique’s men had nothing to eat. Physically jostled and unable to restart properly, the Rouge et Bleu had only one plan: take advantage of the rare second balls gleaned to launch the three rockets in front on the counterattack. Too easy to read for Real Sociedad. Paris did not control anything, did not have possession, multiplied technical waste, in short, did not exist. Merino could even have logically punished Ousmane Dembélé’s partners just before the break, but his heavy shot crashed onto Gianluigi Donnarumma’s crossbar (45th). Given favorite in this Franco-Spanish duel, Paris clearly made an unworthy copy of a Champions League fight. Once again.
Upon returning from the locker room, a Parisian reaction was therefore expected. The first was to place Vitinha – one of the few Parisians up to the task this evening – in front of the defense, no doubt to take advantage of the Portuguese’s technique to finally get the ball back on track. A profitable initiative. Fortunately for the reigning French champions, despite the clear domination of the Spaniards, luck smiled on them. And as often, it was Mbappé who was there to conclude. Author of a very average match, number 7, lonely at the far post, was able to spring at the right time to crucify Remiro after a deflected header from Marquinhos from a corner (1-0, 58th). The Bondynois could even have doubled the lead six minutes later, but Remiro pulled out all the stops by pushing a powerful strike from the Frenchman onto his crossbar (64th). This goal at least had the merit of putting a blow to the morale of the Basques and above all of offering much more space to the Ile-de-France residents. And then the final blow came from one of PSG’s in-form men, Bradley Barcola. Sticking to the touchline on his left side, the former Lyonnais placed a double thunderous acceleration to suck in Hamari Traoré before beating Remiro with a small point (2-0, 70th). An exceptional goal which earned the striker to leave the Park to a standing ovation when he was replaced by Marco Asensio (72nd). The end of the match will be quieter for the Parisians who have therefore managed to achieve a comfortable success in view of the return match. Real Sociedad, for its part, will inevitably have regrets and goes on for a fifth consecutive match without scoring a single goal. See you on March 5 for the second round in Anoeta.
Relive the film of the PSG-Real Sociedad match
