• Already little in sight in the first leg, Neymar again missed his match against Manchester City on Tuesday night.

  • He had however announced before the meeting that he would be at the cleat to help Paris to qualify for the final.

  • Sadly, in City, he was just a caricature of himself, surely feeling he could do it all on his own.

The youngest will not have the reference, but in our time, there was an advertisement which said something like this: "It is those who talk about it the least who eat it the most". It is certainly not Baudelaire or De Musset, it is not even Lalanne, but this adage can not be better attached to the feeling that emerges about Neymar after the elimination of PSG on Tuesday night.

Raised like a cuckoo after the inaugural defeat at the Parc des Princes last week, the Brazilian had promised to come out sword in hand and drool to the lips in the return match, beware of whoever would appear in front of him.

“I'm on the front line, and I'll be the first warrior who goes into battle for the team.

We have lost a battle but the war continues.

I will give the best of myself and I will do everything to bring back this qualification no matter what, even if it is necessary to die on the field.

1% chance, 99% faith, ”he proclaimed on Twitter.

Perdemos a batalha mas a guerra continued.

Eu acredito na minha equipe, acredito que podemos ser melhores do que fomos.

GO TO PARIS ❤️💙 1% chance 99% fair 🙏🏽 pic.twitter.com/erQHQQb021

- Neymar Jr (@neymarjr) April 28, 2021

An uninspired soloist

Thursday morning, Neymar is alive and well. And if Paris did not pass, he, in particular, was not up to the challenge he had launched. We do not know if he has planned to remake this City-PSG in replay with his cornflakes, but what is certain is that he would feed (like us) immense regrets in view of his performance more than average at the Etihad. Deprived at the kickoff of his buddy Kyky, too tight physically after his calf contracture suffered on the way out, the former Barcelona had the keys to the truck on Tuesday. The problem, and this is THE number one fault with Neymar, is that the Brazilian is never less good than when he wants to do everything on his own.

However, Tuesday, we did not need long to understand that the Ney had activated its mode "everything for my mouth and come what may".

A tactic that can pay off when the Parisian number 10 is at the top physically and technically, much less when it is not.

In Manchester, Neymar knitted a lot and lost too many balls, refusing to make the friends play even when the playing situations required it.

He was also able to see, as in this racing duel with Ruben Dias at the start of the second half, that he did not have the canes of his attacking friend.

Without Mbappé, Neymar did not succeed

However, we will not dwell too much on this stat which says that Neymar has not scored in a knockout match since Dortmund, a year ago (seven games), because in itself she wants everything and nothing.

If it is not trivial either, it does not say anything about the contribution that was that of Neymar in the first leg in Munich for example.

On the other hand, it clearly reflects the importance that Kylian Mbappé had this season in the good course of PSG in the Champions League and shows that, deprived of its French striker, Neymar's PSG does not sail at quite the same altitudes. .

It remains to be seen whether the two men will once again have the happiness of being aligned together in C1 under the colors of PSG.

But this is a question that will come to our face quickly enough without having to ask it today.

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