The Parisian team maintained its comfortable lead in the French League, but lost the efforts of its star, Neymar
Monday – 29 Rajab 1444 AH – 20 February 2023 AD Issue Number [16155]
Paris: «Asharq Al-Awsat»
Paris Saint-Germain, the leaders, achieved a fatal victory over its guest, Lille 4-3, yesterday, but received a moral blow, with the exit of its Brazilian striker, Neymar, with an injury, at the end of the competitions of the 24th stage of the French Football League.
In a crazy scenario, the Argentine star, Lionel Messi, gifted his team; Who trailed 2-3, the three points by scoring the winning goal from a free kick with his left foot that crossed the wall to hit the bottom of the left post of goalkeeper Lucas Chevalier and hit the net in the fifth minute of stoppage time (90 + 5).
Kylian Mbappe scored the first and third goals in the two minutes (12 and 87), and Neymar the second (17) before leaving the stadium on a stretcher with an injury in the 51st minute.
And he took turns scoring the Lille hat-trick, Pavode Diakité in the 24th minute, Canadian Jonathan David (58 from a penalty kick) and Jonathan Bamba (69). Lille coach, Portuguese Paulo Fonseca, said after his team lost: “It is very easy to explain (the loss in the last minutes), because the difference is Messi and Mbappe. I think we controlled the game, created the most chances, played our style, and deserved a different result.”
He added, “Scoring 3 goals here is not easy. We did our best to win the match. explicitly I am sorry for the loss, but I am happy with the performance of the players and my team.
Saint-Germain raised its score to 57 points in the lead, ending a series of 3 defeats in a row in various competitions, as it lost to Bayern Munich 0-1 in the first leg of the Champions League final price, and before that against Marseille 1-2 in the final price of the Cup, then Monaco. 1 – 3 in the last stage.
Saint-Germain missed several players due to injury. Most notably Nordy Mukiele, Brazilian Marquinhos, Moroccan Ashraf Hakimi and Portuguese Renato Sanchez.
On the other hand, Lille moved to the French capital, armed with two consecutive victories, the last of which was against Montpellier 2-0, but with fear of the owner of the land, who fell in front of him 1-5 and 1-7 in the last two confrontations, before the fall was repeated.
Lille suffered a second defeat in its last 11 matches in “Ligue 1” (5 wins against 4 draws), noting that its previous loss was against Nice 0-1 on January 29.
After a chance from Messi inside the penalty area, goalkeeper Lucas Chevalier blocked it in the fifth minute, Saint-Germain scored two lightning goals in 5 minutes, first; A pass from Neymar to his colleague Mbappe on the left side of the penalty area, who dodged Portuguese defenders Thiago Diallo and Diakite, and hit the ball with his right foot into the net in the 12th minute. In the 17th minute, Neymar added the second, with a back pass from the Portuguese Vitinha, as soon as the goalkeeper left, to deposit the ball in the empty goal. It is Neymar’s 13th goal in 20 league matches.
Lille did not wait long to reduce the difference, after a cross from Portuguese Andy Gomez reached Diakité’s head inside the area, and he shot it at the net of Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma in the 24th minute.
Saint-Germain suffered a major moral blow by losing the efforts of its star, Neymar, who left the stadium on a stretcher after suffering a severe injury to his right ankle after contact with Benjamin Andre, so that Hugo Ekitiquih entered instead in the 51st minute. This was after Portuguese defender Nuno Mendez was injured in the 31st minute of the first half.
The Parisian club complicated matters after the referee awarded a penalty kick after a mistake by Italian Marco Verratti on Diallo inside the area following a corner kick, which Canadian David successfully executed to the left of the goalkeeper in the 58th minute, raising his tally to 15 goals.
Lille dealt a new blow to its host, scoring the third from a missile shot by Jonathan Bamba that hit Donnarumma’s net, after a wonderful pass in the back of the defense from Gomez in the 69th minute. Christophe Galtier’s men refused to surrender, so the brilliant Mbappe scored his second personal goal and the third for his team after he pounced on Verratti’s pass to the left of the penalty area and hit the ball hard with his right foot into the net (87).
Mbappe raised his tally as top scorer to 15 goals, equal with David and Reims striker Florent Balogun.
And from a magical free kick that he hit and hit the bottom of the post and settled into the net in the fifth minute of stoppage time for the second half, Messi gifted the three points to Saint-Germain, in his 11th goal in “League 1” this season.
Saint-Germain did not taste the loss at home in its last 34 league matches, as it achieved 29 wins and 5 draws, which is the current longest series in the five major leagues.