Christophe Galtier brushed aside the issue with a setback, at a press conference before the Champions League round of 16 second leg against Bayern Munich. Was the Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) season played on Wednesday March 8 on the lawn of the Allianz-Arena? “Personally, I don’t have that feeling. At PSG, all matches are important. » Not sure that the Ile-de-France coach’s Coué method works with the club’s Qatari owners, who, since their arrival in 2011, have made the European League their priority. Nor with his star striker, Kylian Mbappé, whose dream of lifting the “big ears” cup has been postponed yet again.
After losing the first act of their double confrontation (0-1), the Parisians lost again this Tuesday against the Bavarians (2-0). And, like last season, their adventure ends in the round of 16 of the queen competition of European football.
Christophe Galtier’s men had however started the meeting well. “As much as in the first match, Bayern were dominating, as much in this one, we showed another face”summarized the technician at the microphone of Canal + at the final whistle.
Executioner of PSG in the first leg, the French winger of Bayern Kingsley Coman also recognized that his people had lived “a complicated first period”. Shortly before returning to the locker room, Vitinha had almost opened the scoring for the Parisians after a blunder by goalkeeper Yann Sommer. But where last year, on a similar action, Karim Benzema with Real Madrid had sanctioned the French club, the young Portuguese midfielder saw his strike repelled by defender Mattijs de Ligt (38e).
As the saying goes, when it doesn’t want, it doesn’t want. Especially since the Parisians had to deal with the successive injuries of their captain, Marquinhos, then his replacement, Nordi Mukiele, to the point that the young El Chadaille Bitshiabu, 17, found himself playing a full half. in central defence.
The deal was not easier in attack with a transparent Lionel Messi and a Kylian Mbappé muzzled by Josip Stanisic and Dayot Upamecano. So much so that the three most dangerous opportunities for PSG are to be credited to defensive players: Vitinha, therefore, and Sergio Ramos (64e82e).
Just to drive the point home a little more, as in the first leg, the sanction came from a former PSG resident, Cameroonian Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting (61e), who took advantage of a lost ball by Marco Verratti in the Paris area. Before Serge Gnabry comes to increase the score at 89e.
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