Soler is not Neymar, he is not used to playing in the base, says harshly about teammate Mbappé. We did what we could

On Wednesday night, PSG had a big shock. The Parisians only needed to win and be better than Benfica to secure the first place in the Champions League, they were 4 goals up before the game. But even that wasn’t enough and Mbappé pointed to the absence of Neymar in his press conference.

PSG went into the duel with Juventus without star Neymar, who was serving a yellow card penalty. Instead of the classic trio, Christopher Galtier opted for a 4-3-1-2 formation.

Instead of Neymar, Carlos Soler, a summer signing from Valencia, came into the starting line-up as a sub-rosa midfielder. Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi came in as a pair of strikers.

And it was this collaboration that led to PSG’s first goal. Messi passed to Mbappé, who nicely rounded two players and finished to the bar. Bonucci equalised before half-time, but Nuno Mendes gave the Parisians the lead back in the second half. The match ended 2-1 to PSG.

The goal had been scored, satisfaction could reign, it seemed. But Benfica Lisbon scored five goals from the 60th minute onwards to level the scores and points with PSG. With more goals scored away from home, they pushed Messi and co. to second place in the table.

When Kylian Mbappé assessed why PSG failed to score more goals after the game, he lamented the absence of Neymar, who was replaced by Spaniard Carlos Soler.

“Soler is not used to playing in the starting line-up. He is a different player than Neymar. They don’t have the same qualities. But we did what we could,” Mbappé said at a news conference, somewhat insensitive to his teammate.

PSG are heading to the eighth round as an unseeded team for the second consecutive season. Last year they were punished when they crashed out in the first knockout round after a collapse against Real Madrid.

“It’s no big deal to finish second in the group, we qualified for the eighth round. We went to do our job, but it wasn’t enough. We’ll see how the draw goes and we’ll want to win in the eight-finals,” assured Mbappé.

Source: MARCA, PSG