Paris (AFP)
Twist: Paris Saint-Germain lost at home against Nantes (2-1), penultimate at kickoff, and wasted an opportunity to regain the lead in Ligue 1, Sunday for the 29th day.
What suspense!
Paris remains second, three lengths now from Lille and tied with OL, and it will cross its two opponents for the title the next two days, in Lyon and at the Parc against Losc!
Everything was running smoothly at first.
PSG led from a goal from Julian Draxler (42) and would quietly take control, with the goal difference in front of Lille, when their match derailed.
A crazy pass back from Kylian Mbappé offered the equalizer to Randal Kolo Muani (59), and on one against Moses Simon (71) gave the victory to the "Canaries".
PSG lost again after the Champions League.
Qualified for the quarters after his draw against FC Barcelona (1-1) on Wednesday, he seemed to have no more influence to reverse the fate.
After the feat of going to Catalonia (4-1), PSG had already been surprised by Monaco (2-0) at the Parc des Princes.
But at least ASM was 4th and in great shape, while Nantes is a relegation in suffering.
And it is a former member of the house, Antoine Kombouaré, who plunged Paris back into doubt.
His training club came out on top of the relegation zone by beating the club in its best years as a player.
Kanak inflicts a seventh defeat in L1 to PSG this season, the third in the Mauricio Pochettino era, also beaten in Lorient (3-2).
- Rafinha in 10 -
The Argentine coach will have to quickly revive his team, with an 8th final of the Coupe de France against Lille on Wednesday, which sounds like a repetition before the two big shocks in L1.
Then it will be time to think about the quarter-final of the Champions League (PSG will know its opponent on Friday) ...
Maybe PSG need to come back stronger in their matches?
Pochettino had chosen a 4-3-3 with Julian Draxler and Angel Di Maria serving Kylian Mbappé, and Rafinha in 10, Marco Verratti returning to a role of torchbearer alongside Danilo Pereira.
PSG first circulated the ball a lot to try to loosen the defense to five knitted by Antoine Kombouaré.
A first opening took shape for Angel Di Maria, holder for the first time since February 6, but Alban Lafont went to seek his superb strike under the bar (11).
Curled up, Nantes came out only by his arrows, Moses Simon and Randal Kolo Muani.
The Canaries could have collected a penalty when Presnel Kimpembe dismissed Muani, the other native of Bondy on the ground, with the arm, but the referee, Karim Abed, did not judge it so, reinforced by his video assistance (20) .
- Mbappé's mistake -
This decision spurred the Nantes people on, and against Ludovic Blas, Keylor Navas released a big parade (30), on the launch of his brilliant match against Barça.
Not to be outdone, Lafont also made two very good saves in front of Mbappé (38) then Rafinha (40).
He could not do anything, however, on Draxler's cross strike to open the scoring.
The conclusion of the action is a bit lucky, Andrei Girotto unwittingly served the German by countering a one-two between Di Maria and Mbappé, but Paris deserved their lead at the break.
But the unfortunate Mbappé squandered it by offering the equalizer to Kolo Muani, with a very reckless back pass!
The Parisian woes continued: the same Muani escaped, and served the Nigerian Simon for the 2-1.
It took a long time to validate this goal with the video: if Aboudlaye Touré had not deviated slightly from Lafont's long clearance, the two attackers would have been offside.
Lafont released Leandro Paredes' latest attempt to change the fate of the match (77), and the FCN was able to celebrate its second victory only in thirteen years against PSG: before Sunday evening, the balance was 17 defeats in 18 games since 2006!
© 2021 AFP