Paris is no longer on its cloud. Manhandled during part of the match by uninhibited Monegasques, the PSG players were forced to draw (1-1), Sunday August 28 at the Parc des Princes. The Parisians were sometimes smug and worrying in the first act, showing weaknesses that did not exist in past demonstrations (5-0 in Clermont, 5-2 against Montpellier, 7-1 in Lille). The second act, punctuated by a penalty from Neymar (70th), was better.
It’s over on this parity score between the two teams# | 1-1 pic.twitter.com/w5Yr2ADRvU
— Paris Saint Germain (@PSG_inside) August 28, 2022
Sparkling until then, this PSG Galtier version was, for the first time, pushed to its limits. Without there being any danger in delay, a few approximations may worry the new coach. Taken by the throat by an intense Monegasque pressing from the start, the Parisians suffered from the absence of Vitinha. “We went to look for them very high to leave them without solutions”, slipped the doorman Alexander Nübel, at the microphone of Prime Video.
The goal of Kevin Volland (20th) was, precisely, following a recovery from Mohamed Camara. The German also fed on a few errors from the Parisian defense, starting with the approximate alignment of Sergio Ramos. In other situations, Gianluigi Donnarumma has not always given a pledge of safety either. For his first tenure, Renato Sanches was arbitrary.
The flamboyance of the first outings would almost make you forget that the players discovered a system – the 3-5-2 – rarely used previously and had faced, until then, opponents of a lower caliber. Besides, there is not really a fire in the lake. The final statistics (18 shots at 4, 3 posts, 4 saves by Nübel) show that no one would have cried foul if Paris had won by two goals.
Because the Monegasque correctness of the start faded quite quickly. Quickly deprived of Volland through injury, the Rock players relied on the density of their midfield to contain the Parisian assaults. In a system with 3 central defenders cut for counter-attacks, their opportunities were nevertheless counted on the fingers of one hand. But at the end of a frustrating elimination in C1 and a non-match against Lens, the accounting objective took precedence over overall production.
Against this early Paris, this minimalist approach was enough, because the crazy offensive sequence of PSG players had to end one day. On deck from Wednesday in Toulouse, the Parisians will have to be more efficient, one week before the start of the group stage of the Champions League.