Sunday April 4th 2021
“Terrible!”
Whirl around “spoiled child” Neymar
For the first time in a good two months, Neymar is back in the starting line-up – and flies spectacularly from the field. The table lead is gone: Paris St. Germain stumbles before the long-awaited Champions League revenge against Bayern Munich and the press is thrashing on Neymar.
The completely unnecessary dismissal for diva Neymar? The lost championship lead in France? Coach Mauricio Pochettino wanted to quickly forget the bankruptcy against OSC Lille – and switched to attack mode before the duel with Bayern Munich. “Of course we have to go ahead and think about all competitions,” said the Argentine: “We have the Champions League ahead of us, so we will focus on that.”
And in the quarter-finals of the premier class, the Parisians won’t meet anyone, the opponent in the first leg on Wednesday (9 p.m. / Sky and in the live ticker on ntv.de.) is called FC Bayern. The defending champion who defeated Neymar and Co. in the 2020 final. From the perspective of the French, the revenge should now succeed, but the omens are anything but good.
“Time to mature a little”
“We’re not a consistent team for many reasons, but we’re working to fix that,” said Pochettino after his team lost 1-0 (0-1) in the Ligue 1 top game. Despite a Neymar and a Kylian Mbappé, Paris lacked the necessary esprit in the attack. And so the championship lead was gone. To make matters worse, superstar Neymar once again caused a stir. In the closing stages, the Brazilian pushed Tiago Djalo in a frustrated and unnecessary manner – yellow-red for the attacker, after he had already been warned for a grip in the face of an opponent.
While Pochettino held back verbally in public, the press did not spare criticism. Neymar’s behavior is reminiscent of a pubescent teenager, wrote “France Football”: “Terrible!” For the “spoiled child” Neymar it is finally “time to mature a little”. After all, at 29 he is no longer the youngest. For Neymar, it was the second dismissal this season and his fourth since moving to Paris in 2017.
Since the suspension only applies to the league, Neymar can play in Munich on Wednesday. And of course Paris needs the artist in top form if the coup against Bavaria is to succeed. In any case, the will to make amends is enormous, of course, on the Seine. “The frustration was of course huge,” said national player Thilo Kehrer about the defeat in Lisbon, at that time still under Thomas Tuchel, most recently at “Sport Bild”: “But in the meantime we have turned it into motivation – and that has become even bigger, the Champions League to win now. “
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