The national throne of the Parisians was therefore fragile. Returned to the top of Ligue 1 just before the international break thanks to a success against Lyon (4-2), on March 21, PSG immediately lost it again, without glory, in the shock against Lille, Saturday 3 April. Ahead of the Champions League match against Bayern Munich, Mauricio Pochettino’s men’s performance is worrying.
Once again in Ligue 1, against a direct competitor for the title, the Parisians have not found the solution. The victory against Lyon does not hide the very insufficient record against the teams at the top of the league table: in six games, Neymar’s partners have taken only four points, and none at home, at the Parc des Princes.
For his first tenure in two months, the Brazilian illustrated the lacks of the players of the capital in attack. Despite a large possession of the ball by PSG, “Ney” never found the solution against a regrouped team, which confirmed its status as the best defense in the championship.
Frustrated, he even left his team to ten at the start of additional time, after a second yellow card, sanctioning his second gesture of humor during an altercation with a Lille. After a long injury, the Brazilian is still far from having calmed his emotions and settled the sights, like his two free kicks sent very far from the cages of Mike Maignan, the Lille goalkeeper.
Lack of certainties before Munich
3 – Paris has lost each of its last 3 receptions in Ligue 1, it had not known such a series since… https://t.co/iIK4rSWTGI
Nothing reassuring, four days before the quarter-final first leg of the Champions League at the defending champion, Bayern Munich. The Parisians will come to Bavaria with the only certainty that their goalkeeper Keylor Navas represents. The Costa Rican kept his team alive by deflecting Burak Yilmaz’s strike alone against him at the penalty spot (75e).
PSG has undoubtedly just grilled its joker at the start of the last part of the season, where the Parisian club will string together choppy matches in the Champions League, Coupe de France, and now in the last seven matches of Ligue 1.
Lille presented themselves at the Parc des Princes with the same plan as Monaco, in mid-February: a grouped defense, very dense in the axis and a rapid projection forward. Like Monaco, this game plan was validated by an early goal in the match: poor coordination of the Parisian defense allowed Jonathan Ikoné to escape on the right side. He was able to withdraw to Jonathan David, whose strike, countered by Thilo Kehrer, was helped by the crossbar to return (20e).
Tight Championship
Faced with the strength and solidarity of the Northerners, the sum of Parisian individuals has failed. In attack, the triplet Di Maria-Neymar-Mbappé, aligned behind Moise Kean, got entangled in the low block.
Very leg up at the start of the match, like his off-center strike which forced Mike Maignan to a parade (16e), Kylian Mbappé quickly disappeared. Aligned on the left wing at kickoff, its repositioning in the axis in the second period did not change anything.
The French can plead the accumulation of matches and long trips with the Blues during the international break, where he was also disappointing. This is not the case with his two South American teammates, who stayed in the capital for the fortnight.
The Parisian gaps were also glaring in the middle, as often when their offensive stars are on the field. The absence due to Covid of the Italian Marco Verratti has even more disorganized the Parisian reminders.
The duo Idrissa Gueye-Leandro Paredes was crunched by the pair Boubakary Soumaré-Benjamin André, tireless ball collectors and who mustered the midfield in a committed match. The Italian will also miss the opener against Bayern.
“We are in the battle”
Noting in particular the absences of several players, PSG coach Mauricio Pochettino said that“There are plenty of circumstances that mean that we can’t find the regularity we want”. “This is not an excuse but it explains that we have ups and downs”, he added, asserting himself “Not worried” for the rest of the championship: “We will have to fight to the end”.
With this victory, Lille took to the air at the top of the standings, with three points ahead of PSG, four over Monaco, impressive winner of Metz (4-0) earlier in the day, and seven over Lyon. before the OL move to Lens, at 9 p.m.
Eliminated from the European Cup by Ajax Amsterdam and the Coupe de France by PSG, the Northerners only have the championship to play. “We’re first, I’ll let you make the comments. We are in the battle, Lyon, Paris and Monaco too. The gap is small ”, underlined after the match Christophe Galtier, the coach of Lille.
The latter can believe a little more still in a title of champion of France, ten years after the previous one.