PSG beat Nantes on Saturday night at the Parc des Princes.
A victory with a somewhat crazy scenario, since the Parisians never knew how to take shelter despite many opportunities in the first period, and finally made the difference after the expulsion of Navas and the Nantes equalizer.
This is not the first time this season that Paris is scared.
At the Parc des Princes,
Difficult to do more paradoxical than this success of PSG.
Facing Nantes on Saturday, the Parisians should have led 4-0 at the break, were joined when they had just been reduced to ten and it was when we wondered if they were not going end up losing this game they finally figured out how to beat Alban Lafont.
In fact, it was enough to let the partners of the Nantes goalkeeper do it, absolutely masterful the whole match but who ended up conceding an improbable lob against his camp of Dennis Appiah on an insignificant action in the 81st minute.
What was that Keylor outing?
Lucky, Mauricio Pochettino's players had already been so early in the match, when Kylian Mbappé deflected a Leandro Paredes strike into the goal without even doing it on purpose. Freed from the second minute of the weight of opening the scoring, which is always a good thing in this kind of match, and carried by a molten Auteuil stand to celebrate its 30 years, they then unfolded, thanks in particular to a Neymar very leggy. But it was without counting on Lafont, therefore, winner of four duels against Mbappé, Neymar and Messi (twice) in the first period alone.
While the Argentine doesn't have much to be ashamed of on his chances, his two teammates arguably could have done better than center strikes halfway up when they had the goal open.
This is the reproach that can be made to Parisians.
They should have folded this game long before Keylor Navas blown a fuse by taking out knee forward on Ludovic Blas out of his area - while Thilo Kehrer was still in contact - and left his team outnumbered.
And this is not the first time that Paris is scared unnecessarily this season.
Character and feeling of unfinished business
"A match is not always going in our direction, we have to adapt, and for the moment this season we are adapting very well to all situations," said the German defender. Certainly, we can see it like that. But we can also say to ourselves that we have not seen a controlled victory since that against Montpellier in September (2-0), and that it is a little too much when we have this workforce. In Bordeaux before the break, the Girondins, rather of the harmless kind this season, had returned from 3-0 to 3-2 in the last quarter of an hour. In October, it was not until the last minutes to beat Lille and Angers at the Parc after conceding the first goal.
“We know that there are still things to improve, concedes Kehrer.
If we had been more efficient, we would have made it easier for ourselves.
But we have shown that we know how to cope and stay together.
This determination to never let go is also the great satisfaction of Pochettino.
“It's a good victory for us, assures the Parisian coach.
We should have scored more goals in the first period.
But such a match is always open, things can happen and this time around there was this red card from Keylor.
Once again, the team showed their character.
"
There are good things to come out of this meeting, especially on the side of the three arrows in front.
We will come back to this in another paper.
But while a trip to Manchester City is looming crucial for the group's first place in the Champions League, Wednesday, there is still a feeling of unfinished business from this PSG.
Pochettino was often forced to tinker, between injuries and repetition of matches.
The returns of Verratti, Neymar, Messi and Paredes are in this respect good news, while Ramos has never been so close to joining the group.
Di Maria and Marquinhos for their part were able to breathe a little on Saturday.
After three and a half months of competition, it's really the moment for PSG to step up a gear.
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Nantes
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