The Parisians conceded a second defeat in a row at home, against Lyon (0-1), Sunday evening.
Every season, it’s the same thing. As soon as its now traditional early elimination from the Champions League is confirmed, Paris Saint-Germain ends its season in freewheel. Beaten by Lyon (0-1), Sunday April 2, after a gloomy match, the PSG cuvée 2023 is no exception to this rule. But this year, the capital club can hardly rest on its laurels. He has a six-point lead over Marseille and Lens with nine games remaining and is not yet guaranteed to finish at the top of the championship.
Therefore, the possibility of a loss of the title clearly arises. Such an outcome would be an anomaly, for a club that has been champions for eight of the last ten seasons and has been in the lead continuously throughout the year. A bitter sporting failure, too, given the investments of the summer. On closer inspection, however, this scenario does not seem implausible. Because the Parisian ills predate the elimination in the Champions League by Bayern Munich (0-1, 0-2), recorded in early March.
Messi whistled
In the calendar year 2023, Paris has already lost eight times and gives the impression of playing at a slow trot. “We don’t give it our all, it’s difficult to win like that”, has also recognized Danilo Pereira at the end of this disappointment, on Prime Video. Against Lyonnais who were however poor in ninth place and more concerned about their upcoming Coupe de France semi-final, PSG never seemed concerned by this meeting.
He monopolized the ball (62%) without knowing what to do with it and obtained, at best, a few half chances. Despised by his public and transparent, Lionel Messi is the symbol of this collective bankruptcy. “After being trailed, we were quickly resignedlamented coach Christophe Galtier at a press conference. We lacked pride.”
The defense, amputated by a few executives (Sergio Ramos, Presnel Kimpembe) was overwhelmed by Lyon’s counter-attacks, which, by being better negotiated, would have given more relief to the Rhone success. This nonchalance, already seen during the last setback at the Parc against Rennes (0-2), inevitably calls out.
If Paris approaches the next meetings in this way, it risks continuing its negative series. In fact, a trip to Nice, undefeated for three months and the reception of Lens, is looming. The Artésiens, who had suffocated PSG in the first leg, could therefore completely revive the championship by winning on April 15.
A favorable calendar… apparently
PSG will then become the arbiter of the fight for maintenance (it will face Troyes, Ajaccio, Auxerre and Strasbourg). This calendar, at first sight favorable, will however offer intense opposition against hungry formations, during which Paris will have to raise the cursor. “It will take another state of mind and more personality”confirmed coach Christophe Galtier, whose defeat did not help the personal case.
The current content may worry (or depress, it depends), the Mbappé band has a mattress whose thickness is not reduced, for the time being, significantly. “We are ahead but, match after match, we burn our jokers”, noted Galtier. At the same time, Marseille, the main adversary on paper, continues to trip over the flat at home, where it has not won for five games in Ligue 1, and will make perilous trips (Lorient, Lyon, Lens and Lille).
Lens, new dolphin, is released and on a series of three victories. Can the Sang et Or, blunted in the final sprint in previous years and relatively inexperienced, pull off a thunderous comeback? Anyway, it seems that if Paris is champion, it will owe it to the irregularity of its competitors more than to its own flamboyance.