Football
Incomprehensible failure in the last seconds! Look how PSG lost the win. What’s going on in the team?
PSG before and after the World Cup? Almost like two different teams. This is confirmed by the performances, but also by the results. On Sunday, the French league leader surprisingly failed to hold on to his lead against Reims. He cashed in a goal after a mistake in the last seconds of the game. What’s going on with the team?
PSG before and after the World Cup? Almost like two different teams. This is confirmed by the performances, but also by the results. On Sunday, the French league leader surprisingly failed to hold on to his lead against Reims. He cashed in a goal after a mistake in the last seconds of the game. What’s going on with the team?
PSG made mistakes against Reims
A clear cup win against a team from the sixth league should have put PSG back on track. But it didn’t happen. The third of the last five league games did not end in a win. However, this loss hurts the most so far.
Before that, PSG fell to Lens, but they can play at home against the Parisians. The loss to the upstart Rennes on its soil was also somehow biteable. Even if it meant further loss of the lead. But a draw with Reims at home?
Worst of all, PSG didn’t pull off a great performance either. On the contrary. It wasn’t good from the start. But at half-time, coach Christophe Galtier made a key move. He withdrew Vitinha, sent on Marco Verratti and moved Neymar into the space under Messi and Mbappe.
This allowed the game to open up in PSG’s favour, with Neymar scoring the first goal. But to make things less easy, Verratti, who came on at the start of the second half, saw a red card in the 59th minute.
This, of course, meant increased hope for the visitors. However, PSG stayed in the game for a long time. In fact, until the very end of the game. But the star trio of Messi, Neymar, Mbappé failed to strike again.
On the contrary, a few seconds before the end of the match, the game was levelled after an incredibly sloppy and schoolboyish mistake. A header in the middle of the pitch saw Warren Zaire-Emery, only 16 years old, head straight at the foot of the opponent, who could have gone on a fast break and took advantage.
The goal was scored by Folarin Balogun, a man who is visiting Reims from Arsenal.
What’s going on with PSG?
After what PSG have been doing in the new year, the question is what is going on with the team. Before the World Cup it looked unstoppable, the form of Messi and Neymar was phenomenal, Mbappé was also slowly warming up, the team looked well balanced.
But now the team looks completely different. And not even coach Galtier is happy, who criticised the performance against Reims quite harshly. “I’m not worried, I’m angry. We didn’t show anything interesting, we had little movement, everything took us a long time. We have to make decisions in order to increase the competition,” he let himself be heard at the press conference.
Some problems were hinted at by midfielder Danilo Pereira, who said PSG players must change their mind-set immediately. He said if that doesn’t change and the team doesn’t work together, it will be difficult later this season.
It is worth mentioning then that PSG is mainly targeting the Champions League and will face Bayern Munich in the opening knockout round. It therefore has a huge challenge ahead of it, and in order to meet it, it needs to return to form as quickly as possible.
Source: PSG, Ligue 1, ESPN, Twitter