Paris disappoints again and falls in the knockout stages of the Champions League

Neither the positive momentum nor Kylian Mbappé’s return to form were enough to reverse the trend. Beaten, as in the first leg, by Bayern Munich (0-2), Paris Saint-Germain said goodbye to the Champions League in the round of 16, Wednesday March 8. For the second consecutive year – and the fifth in the last seven years – the club from the capital is burying its eternal ambitions of European title from its first big meeting of the season.

And as is usually the case with PSG, the regrets are there when it comes to taking stock. Christophe Galtier’s players will be able to bite their fingers for not having materialized their good first period by opening the scoring. The opportunity had however presented itself on a plateau for Vitinha, but the too kind strike of the Portuguese did not honor the good pressing of Achraf Hakimi (39th). Opposite, goalkeeper Yann Sommer offered his best imitation of Gianluigi Donnarumma’s ball against Real Madrid a year earlier.

A defeat without tragedy

The goal of the former home, Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting, on the hour mark (61st) dealt the fatal blow. Frustrated then dominated, the Parisians abdicated when they would have needed two goals to stay alive. The two headers from Sergio Ramos from a corner (64th, 82nd) ​​and the few raids from a rather discreet Kylian Mbappé will remain anecdotal. Bayern logically won the showdown by outclassing PSG in the second act. The goal against Serge Gnabry (90th) quite simply punished the discouragement of the Ile-de-France region.

It must be said that the course of the evening took a worrying turn despite the start full of envy from the players of Christophe Galtier. Uncertain at kick-off, so much so that he did not hold the whole warm-up, captain Marquinhos had to give up his place in the 35th minute, to another player not in full possession of his means … Nordi Mukiele will have played only ten minutes in total, returning to the bench before the start of the second period. But that is not enough to excuse Lionel Messi’s ghostly match, nor the sinking of Marco Verratti, suffocated by the German pressing.

Unlike its most striking eliminations in the Champions League, Paris will not be able to invoke a curse or cry irrationality. On Wednesday, a lot of ingredients were still missing to play in the same court as Bayern Munich, who did not show themselves in their best light. The game is over and PSG, the comfortable leader of Ligue 1, will soon put a coin back in the machine, hoping that the refrain of missed European meetings will stop one day.