Paris (AFP)

Sometimes mocked, often not very effective, the replacement Eric Choupo-Moting has become a liberator of a Paris SG initially embarrassed by Toulouse before winning (4-0), Sunday in Ligue 1, at the end of a match marked by the injuries of Edinson Cavani and Kylian Mbappé.

A week after their setback in Rennes (2-1), the champions of France have set the record straight at the Parc des Princes. But they have long struggled against an opponent braced on his defense. And against the events, too.

Coach Thomas Tuchel had concocted an original starting lineup, including his captain Thiago Silva and offering his baptism of fire to former Everton midfielder Idrissa Gueye. But he had to review his plans as the game progressed and with the injury.

It is first Edinson Cavani who left his very early (10th). The Uruguayan goleador lifted his right leg up high to control an air balloon but felt a discomfort that prevented him from continuing. Choupo-Moting then came on the scene.

Then it was Abdou Diallo, recruited this summer in Dordmund, who returned to the locker room with his head down before the break, replaced by Silva. And finally Mbappé, broke in the middle of a race with a thigh pain at the hour of play (63).

In this black series, the sunbeam came from Choupo-Moting, author of an improbable doubled (50th, 75th) which capsized the Parc des Princes.

The PSG, which had tweeted during the day its "recognition" towards "all the French and foreign heroes of the Liberation of Paris", in reference to the 75th anniversary of the departure of the Nazi troops from the capital, has therefore returned to the 30-year-old Cameroon striker, landed a year ago from Stoke City in relative indifference.

The muscular center forward was first played Toulouse defense of a clever roulette before deceiving Baptiste Reynet left foot (50th), under the eyes of Ultrasonic corner Auteuil. Then he reoffended, twenty minutes after the goal against his camp Mathieu Goncalves (55), on a pass back from Juan Bernat (75).

The Parisian victory took the thick on an angry head of Marquinhos (83), another darling Park who played his 250th match in the Parisian jersey.

- First for Gueye -

Tuchel, who had made the Brazilian his captain early in the game, also had the opportunity to launch in the big bath Idrissa Gueye, arrived this summer from Everton.

For his first Parisian jersey, the Senegalese international has spared no effort, closing the gaps and raking balloons, as he was used to in England, and even trying his luck in the head (7th), without success.

All was not perfect for the finalist of the last African Cup of Nations, sometimes shaken in duels and guilty of imprecise passes.

On the other hand, if there was one that did not run out of juice, it's Kylian Mbappé.

In all the good moves, the young world champion has tested the reflexes of Baptiste Reynet (3rd, 4th, 21st) on strikes then on a lob of the midfielder who made the park shiver (37th), in addition to gestures high-class techniques and explosive acceleration.

It was on one of them that he unfortunately wounded, before leaving the field grimacing.

So that's another worry to manage for PSG, still entangled in the endless soap opera around the future of Neymar. Sunday, the most expensive player in the world (recruited at Barca for 222 million euros in 2017), eager to leave the club two years after his arrival, was still out of the group.

© 2019 AFP