At the Parc des Princes,
Even though we know it, we dive into it head first every time. In what? In the heavy spectacle of our good old Ligue 1, which we are very happy to return to after each international break, but which we always see too beautiful because of the ugly mirror of Deschamps' French team. This time again, we were happy to go to the Park despite the -8,000 degrees on the Porte d'Auteuil ice floe, before quickly becoming disillusioned with the spectacle put on by the two teams.
But it is not Toulouse that we should blame for anything. The team came with the idea of stopping the bus, which they did, and taking advantage of the rare counter opportunities to score, which they missed. PSG, ultra favorite and ultra leader of the championship, could on the other hand have chosen to warm up the public with a polished game and a little desire.
This was obviously not the program of this team, certainly not badly reworked with a Beraldo-Skriniar hinge, the little young Zague on the left and Désiré Doué, in distress since his arrival at the club, in the middle of the field. Until the goal, sorry, until the marvelous volley from Prince Joao Neves at the entrance to the area, without control after a good cross from Hakimi, the team was careful not to show anything to the public of the Park, not many for the occasion. Barcola is clearly no longer that twirling winger from the start of the season and Dembélé is still the man capable of sending four crosses to the far post without even looking to see if a friend is on the receiving end.
Désiré Doué in distress
In the middle, apart from Joao, the handyman, whom Luis Enrique chose to reposition as left back after returning from the locker room, who knows why, it's not nothing but not far off. We were even a little embarrassed to see poor Désiré Doué playing completely backwards with EVERY ball he received at his feet. As for Zaire-Emery, if he seems to have found the legs of his heyday, he still almost offered the equalizer to a TFC which did not ask for so much. Lacking luck for the Violets, Shavy Babicka managed the feat of sending a sausage straight onto the Paris ring road.
The entry into play of Vitinha still did good for this team lacking creativity (even more so in the face of a five-man defense and a low block), it was also he who came to sign off on the success of the Rouge et Bleu, after Beraldo's second goal, from close range, a few minutes earlier. But this clear success, accompanied by a clean sheet for Matvey Safonov, starting a second time in a row in Ligue 1, is, you will have understood, not much reassuring before the oh-so-important trip on Tuesday , in Munich, in the Champions League.
Already because the typical team has not played together since the start of the last international break and a little automatism before going to look the Bavarians in the eyes would not have hurt anyone, then because that this victory with fingers in the nose could make Parisians think that they are on the right track. We won't go so far as to talk about overconfidence either – the players know their ranking in C1 – but in the face of such minor adversity, it's difficult to know what we're really worth compared to the European elite.
Luis Enrique finds his team exceptional
And it is not the speech of Luis Enrique, obviously speechless with happiness at the performance of his team, which risks shaking all that. While everyone saw with their own eyes the collective performance of his team, the Spaniard did not hesitate to say that “with the ball, we are exceptional. I repeat: exceptional.” No more, no less!
Always charming with the press, he seemed to flinch when a colleague (legitimately) asked him if he was confident or worried after such a match before heading off to face the great Bayern. Answer: “To see incredible things, you have to go to Cirque du Soleil. I think it was a complete match. It was very difficult and I think we were up to the challenge, even if we weren't brilliant. »
Four months after the start of the season, it is still difficult to believe that this team is significantly better than last season, as he had guaranteed on invoice last February. But as always in this club, it is in the Champions League that everything will be decided. In the event of another defeat on Tuesday in Bavaria, not sure that his employers will still be on the same wavelength as him. As for us, for the next match at the Parc against Nantes, next Saturday, it is not impossible that we choose the Crique du Soleil option in the end.
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