Trompe l’oeil or lasting effect? It will take a little more time to say that this PSG is completely healed. That his ineffectiveness is nothing more than a vague memory, while an important trip to Monaco and a Coupe de France match in Lens are looming. Six goals in a week of Champions League and Ligue 1 clashes, this is the first time that the capital club has achieved such success since the start of the season. Against Lyon, Sunday evening at the Parc des Princes, the match turned on the first two Parisian chances and as a symbol, Ousmane Dembélé, often singled out for his lack of realism in the face of the goal, scored on his first opportunity (1- 0.8th).
Five minutes later, Vitinha made the break on a penalty and gave an almost unexpected dimension to the score in the most prolific quarter of an hour of the Parisian season. When Luis Enrique’s men don’t miss each other in the zone of truth it changes everything. How can we explain that this PSG has gone so far in such a short time? First there is the evening’s opponent, undoubtedly blunted by his European performance on Thursday against Frankfurt, whose start to the match was catastrophic. “We are disappointed because we came to look for something. It’s complicated. Our start? We didn’t play the game. We lacked a little aggressiveness too, we didn’t defend at the same time,” explained Georges Mikautadze in the mixed zone. His trainer, Pierre Sage, honestly admitted having fallen “against a high-quality opponent”.
But this better move is perhaps not only to be sought from the opposing side. For several weeks, the players who appeared in front of the press struggled to put their problems into words, admitting to working on numerous exercises in front of goal, while continuing to believe that it would all end up paying off. They had a positive start and the victory in midweek put the heads almost back in place, as illustrated by the collective reaction to the second goal scored by Nuno Mendes on Tuesday. A feeling that Vitinha confirmed after the final whistle of the victory against OL.
“It feels good to win in Salzburg and now at home, we have to continue. I think that the last match against Lyon, we were superior, so we expected that today too. We expected a difficult match, but we did everything to make it easy,” underlined PSG’s official penalty taker. “We saw a complete match, faithful to our principles, from the start. We had a lot of scoring chances and we deserved this victory. We are on a very good run,” added Luis Enrique at a press conference. Proof of this realism: PSG only had 6 shots on target, but scored three times…
In this positive assessment, several points can also explain the newfound effectiveness. Against Salzburg then Lyon, PSG was able to show more variety in its way of projecting itself. In these two meetings, the first two achievements came from attacks placed dear to Luis Enrique. When the last ones arrived via play in transition. The French champion will also be able to be satisfied with the rise in power of a new kid. Decisive passer before causing the break penalty against Lyon, Désiré Doué made a major entry against Salzburg punctuated by a goal and an offering, while at the same time Bradley Barcola continues his period of drought. Without forgetting Gonçalo Ramos doubly effective between Tuesday and Sunday.
In this week which is good for heads and statistics, Ousmane Dembélé was even choosy. “It’s true that the first 15 minutes we put in a lot of intensity. We didn’t let them breathe and we were rewarded. Afterwards, we had two or three chances where we could really kill the match and we let the opponent come back. Overall, we had a good match,” conceded the French international. As if the building was still fragile.
