With a knife between their teeth, Paris managed to turn around a poorly started situation to beat Manchester City at the Parc des Princes on Wednesday (4-2) and get a huge breath of fresh air in the Champions League before the final day.
With 10 points before going to Stuttgart next week, Paris is not yet out of the woods, the fault of its mistakes in the fall, but has taken a big step forward to avoid an infamous elimination in the first round . Above all, he delivered a benchmark match which could influence the rest of his season.
The prestige of the match but also the immense stakes, between two extremely wealthy and ambitious clubs on the verge of elimination, could be seen everywhere at the Parc des Princes: immense tifo which overflowed from the Auteuil stand, pyrotechnic show, maximum decibels, prestigious guests (Victor Wembanyama, Teddy Rinner)…
And both teams lived up to expectations. The goals arrived in the second half but the first act was already very intense and electric.
During the first 45 minutes, City could have echoed the message of the banner displayed by the Parisian supporters: “Beaten by the waves but never sank”.
Pep Guardiola’s team in fact gave up possession of the ball like rarely (60% for PSG) and suffered wave after wave: strike from the restless Désiré Doué (4), header from Joao Neves (10), strike from Achraf Hakimi (19)…
But PSG’s chronic ineffectiveness in the Champions League this season allowed the visitors to go 0-0 at the end of the first act.
In particular, Gvardiol saved with his thigh a shot from Fabian Ruiz on his line (26th). And then, Paris thought they had scored a magnificent collective goal but Nuno Mendes was thrown a millimeter offside (45+1). But a cruel cancellation of the video refereeing, for a few millimeters, erased the long Parisian celebration…
The feeling of a chance that had passed loomed over the Parisians, who nevertheless got back on track, with Ousmane Dembélé, on the bench to everyone’s surprise at kick-off, who replaced Lee after the break. Only to be punished by a goal against the run of play from Jack Grealish (50th), who at the far post had followed the ball well, after a good save from Donnarumma.
Three minutes later, Erling Haaland hit the nail on the head (53rd), again at the far post. Ironically for Paris, these two goals were played a few millimeters from offside.
But Luis Enrique’s men had the merit of immediately reducing the score, with a wild race from Bradley Barcola who centered full of composure for Démbélé (56th).
PSG once again thought they were cursed when Doué hit the bar but Barcola recovered perfectly to find the small net (60th). The evening began to exude a legendary scent, with an ecstatic audience.
The ball continued to run from one end of the field to the other, and Paris resumed its bad habits: Dembélé sent a shot into the stands, Nuno Mendes misplayed the shot after a good breakthrough, Barcola saw his shot at point blank range, in the space of two minutes.
Dembélé almost scored an anthology goal by linking a small bridge on Bernardo Silva and struck forcefully from a tight angle, pushed back by the crossbar (70th). Manchester City were on the verge of knockout
The salvation came from an off-center free kick taken by Vitinha and it was Joao Neves, in the oven and at the mill since the start of the match, who came out of his box to score with a header (78th).
Despite an unusual change of defender for attacker (Hernandez for Barcola), coming from Luis Enrique, PSG continued to dominate the match and Mancunian excursions towards the Parisian surface were rare.
Served by Dembélé, Ramos failed to make the break (90th), blocked by Ederson. And as if to finish chasing its demons, Paris managed to defend a dangerous corner, with a beautiful fist-raised exit from Donnarumma.
In the following action, Gonçalo Ramos, who entered the game, took advantage of a defensive blunder by the Citizens to complete the Parisian masterpiece with a shot into the top corner (90+3).
