Three days after being released from the Champions League by Bayern Munich, PSG must focus on Ligue 1, with a trip to Brest on Saturday.
If PSG is racing at the top of Ligue 1 with an eight-point lead over Olympique de Marseille, the outcome of the current season is far from certain with twelve more days to go. The Parisian players must therefore approach the meeting which awaits them, Saturday March 11, in Brest seriously. This “match after”, the one following the elimination of the Champions League, Paris has made it an annual meeting not really desired.
Kylian Mbappé knows the music too well since his arrival at Paris Saint-Germain in 2017 not to sing this refrain which he would nevertheless like to forget. Wednesday evening, when Paris has just been eliminated from the Champions League by Bayern Munich, the Bondy prodigy is already announcing the program: “We are going to question ourselves and return to our daily life: the championship.”
Each year, the club from the capital takes a wall in the European Cup. But every year, he still manages to win a national title at the end of the season. Christophe Galtier, who experienced his first disappointment on the Parisian bench, knows that his head will only have a chance of holding on if he perpetuates this tradition. “It remains a great disappointment, we have to digest it and accept it, to continue our journey in the championship“, launched the Parisian coach on Wednesday evening.
For some time, PSG has known how to manage disappointments
Digest and accept, PSG knows how to do very well. Since its first elimination from the C1 of the QSI era during the 2012-2013 season, against FC Barcelona, Paris has become an expert in accelerated mourning. All in a few days, to focus on this famous “match after”, sometimes with memorable slaps to his opponents. Lille in 2015 (6-1), Caen in 2016 (6-0) and Metz in 2018 (5-0) still remember it. These three major successes then follow logical eliminations, respectively against Barça, Manchester City and Real Madrid. Frustrated and helpless, the PSG had then spent its nerves on weaker than him. Brest is warned.
The more traumatic eliminations that Paris have experienced have also been followed by victory. Like this short success in Lorient in 2017 (2-1), four days after the comeback in Barcelona, which made a lasting impression at PSG. Edinson Cavani, the Parisian striker at the time, told his neuroses to ESPNmore than two years after that long night at Camp Nou: “I started not being able to sleep anymore. I spent my time reading. And then I started to worry, because I was arriving at training without having slept a wink all night.“
Only two missteps in nine “after games”
These ghosts of the past reappear in 2019 with the elimination against Manchester United. Once again, while the club is going through a phase of amazement and misunderstanding after a huge failure, PSG wins in Dijon (4-0). A victory by dragging its feet, without envy, against a Dijon defense in sieve mode. Same observation last year, after the humiliation in Madrid, with a success at home against a Bordeaux team in distress (3-0). Despite the victory, the Parc des Princes boos its players.
Of the nine”matches after” that PSG has experienced since the start of the QSI era, Paris has therefore won seven. There will have been only two missteps. A defeat in Lyon in 2014 (0-1) after elimination against Barcelona, while Paris was still discovering the very high European level. And a draw in Rennes (1-1) in 2021, a few days after the semi-final lost against Manchester City.
At the time, between the elimination against the Cityzens and the “match after“against the Bretons, Paris had consoled itself not on the pitch, but by announcing the extension of Neymar’s contract. A good reason to put away the handkerchiefs. This year, the Brazilian is injured and Mbappé and Messi have not done part of their intention to extend. Paris does not have much to celebrate but if it does not want to sink even more, it will have to beat Brest. Far from being insurmountable for Parisians now accustomed to bouncing back after a disappointment.