There are evenings when the punishment does not fall when it is legitimate. Paris Saint-Germain experienced this on Tuesday, October 19. Dominated from start to finish and led to the score beyond the hour mark, the capital club managed to scrape a precious victory against RB Leipzig (3-2) thanks to Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi.
As the Parc des Princes slowly sank into boredom and began to accept its fate, everything changed at the hour mark and the public returned to the vibrations of victory against City. It all started with a pass intercepted by Kylian Mbappé, a ball recovered very high and given to Lionel Messi, whose trip ended at the back of the net of Peter Gulacsi (67th).
Barely more than five minutes later, Paris continued its momentum thanks to a penalty obtained by Mbappé, unbalanced by the French Mohamed Simakan. Messi picked up the ball, put it down, and, as the tension peaked, opted for a panenka that was as gentle as it was humiliating. As if he was the one who decided when the match should end, even when there is more than a quarter of an hour to play.
3 – No player has scored more goals than Lionel Messi in his first 3 appearances for Paris in the Champions League (3 – as many as Neymar and Mauro Icardi). Prince. #PSGRBL pic.twitter.com/KmIQsKXmfJ
– OptaJean (@OptaJean) October 19, 2021
Even before the start of the meeting, English journalists had already written a line on a blank page of their computer, choosing the future title of their report. Prophetically: “Messi fires PSG top of Group A “. Understand” Messi pulls PSG to the top of Group A. “But between the two whistles, the turn of events made diviners doubt.
Not directly because, as in the three previous confrontations between the two teams, Paris did not take long to open the scoring. Kylian Mbappé made the nets tremble from the 9th minute of play. The Parisian devoured the space on a quick attack initiated by Marquinhos then Draxler, going up all the opposing half of the field before crossing his shot to deceive Peter Gulacsi.
From there, Paris could draw inspiration from the still fresh scenarios of the last meetings with the red bulls. But never the brilliance of the Lisbon semi-final (3-0), one of the most successful evenings of PSG in C1, has never pointed out. This is indeed the suffering seen in the empty stands of the fall of 2020 that marked its return. Stifled by the pressing as high as coordinated by the men of Jesse Marsch, the Parisian rearguard saw white waves sweeping over her to drink the cup.
The alerts were however explicit. In three minutes, PSG survived thanks to Marquinhos’ shot from Willy Orban after an indirect free kick (25th) then the resumption in imbalance on the post of André Silva (27th), before giving in to the latter, all alone at the far post (28th). Quiet conclusion of an action built from its goalkeeper for Leipzig against a Parisian block almost spectator. And in the second period it was Nordi Mukiele who emerged from a cross from Angelino to give the advantage to his family (57th).
The abyss was close but it was at this moment that Paris raised its head and offered its audience a pleasurable end of the evening and which could have been even more so if Kylian Mbappé had transformed another penalty after extra time. But his completely missed strike above the bar of Gulacsi did not have any consequences because Paris still finds the head of Group A, despite the resounding victory of Manchester City against Bruges (5-1) earlier in the evening. .