In the tormented European history of Paris-SG under the Qatari mandate, Wednesday’s elimination will have a place of choice. Superior in everything and more particularly athletically, some opposing players having exploded the expiry date, Paris-SG fell in the round of 16 of the Champions League, beaten (3-1) by three goals from Karim Benzema while it dominated the head and shoulders part.
Old mental weaknesses have undoubtedly resurfaced: it is up to the players to talk about them, if they want, which would surprise us. There, right away, everything jumped: the illusion maintained for months by coach Mauricio Pochettino, who will have let go of everything he could let go (the national title, the Coupe de France, the last four of the League des Champions), the Messi carnival completely disconnected from sport as it is, the appalling spectacle of a Neymar who no longer dribbles, everyone’s lack of character. When Kylian Mbappé turns the corner, there will be nothing left.
The old legs of Real
At kick-off, the Madrid team stopped the liar poker game of the first leg. From the start: devils, urging the public at the slightest opportunity and particularly caring for the Parisian stars (Kylian Mbappé, Lionel Messi and Neymar) on each contact, to put them psychologically in the red. Many situations for Luka Modric and others but few opportunities: in the 20th minute, Neymar lines up the third Parisian shot on target, a sign that the Parisians have stepped over the contact to get their hands on the game. The Whites were at odds: their coach Carlo Ancelotti having installed a low block since the start of the season to save the old legs of his midfielders, one could have some doubts about the sudden transformation of the Merengues.
Messi appears alone with a tight angle in front of a Thibault Courtois who plays the albatross (30th), Mbappé scores a disallowed goal for a fifty centimeter offside from Nuno Mendes and the public drops two tones, a way of homage to the evening visitors. Paris is stronger. Neymar sees the space opening up in front of him, he sends Mbappé slightly off-center on the left and the international striker of the Blues scores his 25th goal of the season, the 6th in the Champions League. A few skirmishes triggered by the people of Madrid on the most bloodthirsty Parisian players (Marco Verratti, Leandro Paredes) speak of experience and vice, but Real have nothing else in store. 1-0 to lemons.
Psychological defeat
For the game to turn, it needed something against the tide, a capital individual error or a defensive oversight on a set piece. Preferred to the triple European champion Keylor Navas, the Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma will put the Whites back in the game on his own: a hesitant foot game, Benzema who runs in and recovers a small cross from Vinicius to put his people back up (1- 1, 61e). The Parisians had already won the match with the ball: they must therefore win another, more psychological, between rationalization of the match (we are better) and composure when the opponent pushes.
But they can’t. No player takes the floor to gather the energies, no one takes care of finding Mbappé in the spaces and Modric, after two scarlet red alerts, finds Benzema in the middle of the box while the Parisian defenders no longer know whether to look. in front or behind (2-1, 76th). While they are there, the vice-champions of France offer a third goal – Marquinhos with the decisive pass, as crazy as that may seem – to the French striker whose clinical efficiency has been proverbial for 15 years in the middle of the football (3-1, 78th). The Parisians are then completely lost, without any tactical thread, compressed in their own surface and exploding on all contacts, pleading with an impassive referee (the Dutchman Danie Makkelie). We will not be taken away from the idea that this Real Madrid, coming out of the few spells of Modric and Benzema, does not have much going for it. This is to say the crash of PSG.