ANALYSIS. PSG – TFC: Toulouse did not repeat last season, we explain why

All good things come to an end, and the TFC series couldn't find a better reason to end than at the Parc des Princes, where PSG have been on a roll since the start of the Ligue 1 season (six matches, six victories). After three consecutive successes, the Toulouse team lowered its flag on the leader's lawn, where they had spoiled the title celebration party last May, leaving a purple stain on the stats sheet of the Parisians who had never lost at home. before this last meeting.

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And to see, in the documentary dedicated to him on Canal + (“You Can't Understand”), the face that Luis Enrique had pulled that evening, we suspected that he meant that he was not being shot. Don't play the same music again on this cold Friday in November. On the bench opposite, Carles Martinez Novell would have been happy to dance again, now that he knows the music, and we won't take away from the Catalan that he went to Paris to play with his ideas.

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In its now classic system of three central defenders, and past the slight cold spell linked to the absence of Djibril Sidibé, Tef first proved that it really behaved like a team, where everyone was involved fulfilled his mission when the Violets did not have the ball, and tried to use it well when they did. Often accurately, sometimes with mischief, like on this sideline where they almost repeated the move they had managed in Rennes before the break: Aboukhlal put Casseres back into play, right under Safonov's nose, but the Venezuelan was a bit tight to hand it to Gboho who was just waiting for that (19).

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In truth, the Russian goalkeeper still had less work than Guillaume Restes, who returned to the Parc des Princes for the first time since the silver medal he won there in August with the French team, at the Games. Olympics. Requested from the 7^e minute, the Pitchoun released the horizontal reflex stop on a strike from Beraldo, then the headlines on a cross-shot from Dembélé and another from Hakimi (21, 34), boxed the heavy strike from Zaire-Emery (23 ), that of Hakimi again (47), captured that of Barcola (34)… No need to draw a drawing.

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PSG for its part, four days before a crucial trip to Bayern Munich in the Champions League, played without Donnarumma, without number 9 either, but with Achraf Hakimi, a player positioned as a defender but whose everything about him screams that he is an attacker. Very often positioned on the highest line, it was he who delivered a perfect cross for Joao Neves, and the Portuguese's recovery was no less so (1-0, 35th).

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Babicka's huge failure

Still in the game against a small PSG, who will have to do much, much better in Bavaria next week, Tef believed in it, first when Aboukhlal was caught at the last second by Zaire-Emery (69 ) and especially when Babicka, freshly entered, intercepted a full-axis pass from the same Zaire-Emery.

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But the Gabonese mysteriously sent his shot well above Safonov's goal, while he was wide open, holding out his arms (71st). The end could have proven TFC right, as long as Paris couldn't get the second one, Magri then had the opportunity to get it back, but Safonov won his face to face, then PSG broke the bank with a goal from Beraldo (84) and a last one from Vitinha (90 + 1). But the score probably does not reflect the content, and the “1-2-3 zero” launched by the Parc des Princes seemed very presumptuous given the not-so-obvious gap between two teams supposed to be separated by three galaxies.