PSG in half after having put itself in a petrin villa – Liberation
Invited to defend A pretty pretty advantage (3-1 on the outward journey) On the lawn of Aston Villa in Birmingham, Paris-SG managed to rally the semi-finals of the Champions League but it lost a match (2-3) and given the elimination close, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, As in Liverpool a round earlier, it was the Italian international goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma who saved the house while holding the rudder in place of his team, a tasty thing when you know the distrust that has accompanied it to the club for months. However, the match has long looked like a health walk. But here it is: at this level, when you leave something to the opposing team, it takes it.
There was an unknown, not on the result but on the general outfit of the match. In the event that the English team recovers something from bestiality, the savagery which sometimes characterizes it at home, what about the good collective order and on the « propret » side (precise, framed) of Marquinhos and others? We would like to resuscitate the ancient ghosts, the primacy of the struggle and the psyche on all the rest, maintain the myth of the little one which puts the head where the nanti is reluctant to set foot.
But football is no longer like that. At Villa Park, the fantasies have shattered on the realities of football-the speed of Bradley Barcola, the Parisian offensive projections-fairly quickly, Achraf Hakimi swallowing 50 meters in counterattack to take over a center pushed by the Villa Guardian « Dibu » Martinez (0-1, 11th). The domination of the champions of France is then as it borders on abstraction. The theory: the defenders aside, Hakimi and Nuno Mendes, are invited to follow the counters not by holding their respective wing but by transplanting in the axis, to finish between the penalty spot and the limit of the repair surface. The practice: after the success of the Moroccan, it is Mendes, his pendant on the left, who slams the door on the fingers of the villans (0-2, 27th).
Parisian superiority is so inevitable, so written (we devour the spaces that the villa leaves, required to attack to fill its delay) that the Parisians then forgot to feed it, letting the Belgian Youri Tielemans reduce the brand (1-2, 34th) after a series of negligence and being afraid, finally a little, before half-time achieved with a goal. An advantage that does not say the chasm that separates the two training courses in terms of speed, technical or strategic control or confidence.
The thing is that this minimum advantage says something else: the Parisians have finished their match. While Tielemans et Compagnie have another fifty minutes in front of them. And between a team that no longer plays and a team that plays, it’s quickly seen. John McGinn is seventy meters with the ball without being bored and puts a mine in full skylight (2-2, 55th); Defender Ezri Konsa Canonne closely on a service by Marcus Rashford (3-2, 57th) and PSG players find themselves on a thread suspended 50 meters from the ground, in a very precarious balance that Donnarumma preserves with finger or foot (57th, 59th, 70th) at the cost of outstanding parades.
Given since the three initial half-time, PSG is then taken in an unimaginable storm. Two possible antidotes: to redo a threat to Martinez’s goal, to calm the collective ardor of the villans, and set foot on the ball to ensure long sequences of possession, no team having ever taken a goal when she had the ball. Villa has brought the cavalry back (Marco Asensio, Ollie Watkins, Ian Maatsen and Jacob Ramsey) to surf the ridge, blowing so much and more to switch the Parisians in the void, but they managed to do a little of both: conservation and danger. They refreshed the atmosphere of the Villa Park and the English team as well, rather holding the last quarter of an hour, which also proves mental qualities that Ligue 1 is not likely to experience. Arsenal or Real Madrid are on the semi-finals program.
