The knife between the teeth, Paris managed to reverse a poorly embarked situation to beat Manchester City at the Parc des Princes on Wednesday (4-2) and offer a huge bowl of air in the Champions League before the last day.
With 10 points before going to Stuttgart next week, Paris is not yet shot, the fault of its autumn errors, but has taken a big step forward to avoid an infamous elimination in the first round . Above all, he delivered a reference match that could affect the rest of his season.
The prestige of the match but also the immense issue, between two wealthy and ambitious clubs on the verge of elimination, saw each other everywhere in the Parc des Princes: huge tifo which overflowed from the Auteuil tribune, pyrotechnic show, maximum decibels, guests of prestige (Victor Wembanyama, Teddy Rinner) …
And the two teams have honored expectations. The goals arrived in the second period but the first act was already very intense and electric.
During the first 45 minutes, City could have taken over the message of the banner deployed by Parisian supporters: “beaten by the waves but never sunk”.
The Pep Guardiola team has indeed gave up possession of the ball as rarely (60% for PSG) and was vague after wave: strike from the Désiré Doué (4), head of Joao Neves (10), strike from Achraf Hakimi (19) …
But the chronic ineffectiveness of PSG in the Champions League this season allowed visitors to get away with 0-0 at the end of the first act.
In particular, Gvardiol saved a thigh a shot from Fabian Ruiz on his line (26th). And then, Paris believed that she had scored a magnificent collective goal but Nuno Mendes was launched by a millimeter offside (45+1). But a cruel cancellation of video arbitration, for a few millimeters, came to erase the long Parisian celebration …
The feeling of a chance that passed was watching the Parisians, who nevertheless restarted foot in the floor, with Ousmane Dembélé, on the bench to everyone’s surprise at the start, which replaced Lee after the break. Only to be punished by a goal against the course of the game of Jack Grenish (50th), which at the second post had followed the ball, after a nice Donnarumma stop.
Three minutes later, Erling Haaland rushed to the nail (53rd), still in the second post. Ironically for Paris, these two goals were played a few millimeters near the offside.
But the men of Luis Enrique had the merit of immediately reducing the scoring, with a disheveled race by Bradley Barcola who centered full of composure for Burch (56).
The PSG believed once again to be cursed when Goué struck on the bar but Barcola took perfectly to find the small net (60th). The evening was starting to exhale a legendary scent, with an ecstatic audience.
The ball continued to run from one end of the field, and Paris resumed its bad habits: Dembélé sent a strike in the stands, Nuno Mendes played badly after a nice breakthrough, Barcola saw his shot At close range, in the space of two minutes.
Dembélé almost recorded an anthology goal by chaining a small bridge over Bernardo Silva and striking in a closed angle, pushed by the transverse bar (70th). Manchester City was on the edge of the KO
Salvation came from an eccentric free kick pulled by Vitinha and it was Joao Neves, in the oven and in the mill since the start of the match, which came out of his box to mark the head (78th).
Despite an unusual defender for an attacker (Hernandez for Barcola), coming from Luis Enrique, PSG continued to dominate the match and the Mancunian excursions to the Parisian surface were rare.
Served by Dembélé, Ramos failed to take the break (90th), blocked by Ederson. And as if to finish hunting her demons, Paris has managed to defend a dangerous corner, with a beautiful raised fist outing from Donnarumma.
On the following action, Gonçalo Ramos, which came into play, took advantage of a defensive blunder of the Citizens to complete the Parisian masterpiece of a shot in the skylight (90+3).
