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7 months ago
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Paris Saint-Germain wins but does not reassure and eleven days before the round of 16 first leg of the Champions League against Real Sociedad at the Parc des Princes, this necessarily looks bad. Friday evening, on the pitch of the Racing Club de Strasbourg, the capital club has, of course, temporarily taken a nine-point lead over OGC Nice at the top of the championship but the face displayed by the Rouge et Bleu is still far from achieve unanimous agreement among observers. In line with the sluggish performance achieved against Brest (2-2), the reigning French champions thus experienced all the difficulties in the world to get rid of the Alsatian team (2-1). A few minutes after such a pale copy returned to Meinau, the – legitimate – questions arose at the press conference.
A worrying collective fragility!
“You conceded 20 shots, how can you concede fewer?” questioned a journalist in particular before one of our colleagues asked Luis Enrique if he was worried about the performance given by his men. True to his character, the former coach of La Roja did not let himself be impressed, ensuring that his protégés had had a good match. “If we analyze the match from the start, we had a good match, against a strong rival, with very good momentum, especially at home. (…) We had a very positive mentality: when we had to know how to defend, we did it, confidently”in this sense, the Spanish.
An optimistic speech that is quite confusing in view of the facts. So yes, PSG won and that is the main thing but what can we say about the content… Deprived of Ousmane Dembélé (preserved), Bradley Barcola (suspended), Achraf Hakimi (back from the CAN) or even Milan Skriniar and Nuno Mendes, PSG has, in fact, been guilty of far too much fragility. Rarely in control, caught in the duels, overwhelmed in the impact, crumbly in the transition, the capital club even found itself playing for time in the final moments to preserve a short advantage acquired, once again, thanks to Kylian Mbappé.
Faced with criticism, Luis Enrique puts on a show!
Taking advantage of a terrible blunder by the Strasbourg neo-keeper Alaa Bellaarouch, comforted at the end of the match by Gianluigi Donnarumma, the Bondynois launched his team (1-0, 31st) before turning into a passer after a very well-executed counterattack and concluded by Asensio (2-0, 49th). The rest ? An indigestible proposition where the Parisians will have above all displayed a disturbing excitement, less than two weeks before their meeting in the Champions League. If Habib Diarra found the crossbar and could also have opened the scoring in this meeting (20th), Dilane Bakwa finally quite logically punished the current leader of Ligue 1. A reduction in the score more than deserved given the numerous individual errors committed by the Parisians and a one-sided end to the match.
Dominant, the RCSA thus created three clear opportunities to equalize (69th, 79th, 90th +3) but ultimately lacked offensive realism to secure the point of the draw. Saved by its goalkeeper on several occasions, PSG is worried at a time when it should be “much better”, if we refer to the famous declarations of Luis Enrique last December. Enough to cause headaches for the main person concerned? Nothing is less sure. “There weren’t 20 shots on target. It’s not just one team playing, we can’t win every game 4-0. Winning isn’t enough?” the Parisian coach then asked himself before returning, not without irony, to the meeting against Real Sociedad.
“In twelve days we might be dead. I’m not interested in the Champions League, I’m thinking about the Brest match which is a cup match, it’s a final for us.. Relaunched on his predictions made last December, the former Barça coach preferred (again) to use derision to respond to the press, alarmed by the current level of the residents of the Parc des Princes. “In March it will be worse, in April it will be better, in May worse and better in June. The objective is to arrive on June 1st, being able to win all the titles”, laughed Luis Enrique. As a reminder, the Champions League final will take place on June 1 at Wembley. Until then and to respect the new roadmap by its coach, PSG will have to consolidate its national supremacy, both in Ligue 1 but also in the Coupe de France (Brest reception, Wednesday at 9 p.m.).
