Paris, a truce that comes at the right time

After suffering their first defeat of the season in the European Cup, the Parisians have just given up their seat at the top of the championship.

Beaten on Arsenal’s pitch in the Champions League, Paris Saint-Germain was counting on Ligue 1 and a trip to Nice to find a smile again. Except that, held in check on the Côte d’Azur, the capital club will wait two more weeks and the duration of the international break to taste the joys of success again. Authors of a first period well below their abilities, the Parisians confirmed the doubts born from the London setback and left for the selection with more questions than answers, while the week was also marked by the sidelining by Ousmane Dembélé and the prominent outings of Luis Enrique.

Led at the break by Nice, PSG showed a worrying face for a long time at the end of the seventh day of Ligue 1. Without a scorer and without life, the Parisians were suffocated by the intensity and will of Nice. “In the first half, we weren’t really into it“tried to justify Bradley Barcola at the microphone of DAZN, without trying to find excuses for a group which only won 41.2% of its duels and lost 20 balls in the first period. “What are we missing? Maybe more desire, I don’t know“, he even added.

Like his comrades, Ousmane Dembélé did not show the face of a player in search of, small, redemption, by producing a very dull and frustrating first act. If he was able to be decisive in the Parisian equalizer, he embodied this Paris which already had its head elsewhere when it came out on the pitch. A level of play that Luis Enrique did not fail to note in front of the media: “In the first period, I have a very simple explanation. We had an unusual level of imprecision and we had a very high level of errors.”

Ligue 1: PSG takes only one point in Nice and cedes its leadership chair to Monaco (francetvinfo.fr)

If he wanted to remind “aggression” on Achraf Hakimi in the first period, he still congratulated his players for their composure after returning from the locker room. “In the second half, no player bothered the referee and we focused on ourselves“, he underlined, indirectly highlighting too much nervousness during the first act. A distracted and disturbed state of mind, symbolized by the numerous technical fouls at the start of the match.

Often inclined to congratulate his players and highlight the positive, which he did regarding the second half against Nice, the Asturian technician this time wanted to charge them a little more than usual at a press conference. Asked about the early exit of Randal Kolo Muani after the break, Luis Enrique confided that the striker was the only fuse to blow, but that he could have been supported. “If I could have changed five players I would have done so“, he declared, emphasizing the “bad“first period of his team.

In Paris traditionally, the crisis lurks in November, so there is no reason to be overly concerned. Especially since even if it suffered a heavy defeat during the week against Lazio Rome, Nice remains one of the best teams in the championship, able to target Europe every year. The international break will perhaps be an opportunity for the Parisian squad to take a break and change of scenery, while many players will join their selection, and for Luis Enrique to take a breath, he who finds the start of PSG season, “better than last year“. Moreover, at the same time last year, the leader of Ligue 1 was already not called Paris Saint-Germain… but AS Monaco.