Defeated there and back by Bayern Munich, the Parisians once again left the Champions League through the back door on Wednesday.
There was no exploit. For the fifth time in the last seven European campaigns, PSG stopped in the knockout stages of the Champions League on Wednesday March 8. A new bitter setback, which marks a new setback in an increasingly distant quest for a victory in C1. Defeated tactically, in commitment and aggressiveness, the teammates of Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi surrendered without really fighting against Bayern Munich.
After this failure, The Teamlike many, chose to target the performance of the two attackers. “Paris without geniuses“, headlines the French daily, while Mbappé and Messi only had crumbs to exploit. “While its 2020 final, in a particular format in the midst of an epidemic, and its 2021 semi-final, had suggested the take-off of the project, PSG will once again be mocked by all of Europe for their new rich ways which do not understand not his fundamental inability to grow”, blows the daily in its editorial of the day.
On his side, The Parisian is not really more tender, titrating “Paris still does not have the level”. The Ile-de-France daily comes to the same conclusion, after a double confrontation where PSG will not have scored and conceded three goals. “PSG will have alternated the interesting and the unremarkable in this round of 16 second leg and will never have seemed on the verge of rocking Kingsley Coman’s partners”, he observes bitterly.
Across the Rhine, the atmosphere is necessarily lighter, even if the Bavarian performance does not allow you to be proud of a club of this stature. Mathijs de Ligt’s line save was the turning point of the match, as the score was 0-0 at the time. “I’m going to put a Swiss chocolate truck in front of his door”smiled his Swiss goalkeeper Yann Sommer as a result.
The European press ruthlessly with the PSG project
Despite this huge opportunity, Kicker he also aims the two offensive weapons, unable to break through the Bavarian lock for 180 minutes. “Of course, the absence of Presnel Kimpembe hurt, but neither the centre-back’s absence nor Neymar’s end to the season were the factors that ultimately led to the early elimination. On the contrary, the Parisians relied too much on the individual class of their stars Lionel Messi and Mbappé, but both turned out to be total failures..
In Spain, Marca sees him noon on his doorstep, titling “If you want to win it, you know…” with a photo of Kylian Mbappé, in reference to his choice to stay at PSG rather than join Real Madrid last summer.
Finally, in England, the Guardian, more focused on the elimination of Tottenham against AC Milan but disillusioned by this new failure, sums up the eternal restart in Paris since the arrival of the Qataris in 2011. “They will of course continue to try. A few more signings this summer, maybe a new coach, some adjustments to the project. […] And in a way, that’s simply the mantra of modern Paris Saint-Germain. Have we already bought? Have we already failed? Never mind. Let’s buy again. Let’s fail again. Let’s fail better. Let’s fail with the two greatest strikers in the world at our disposal.” concludes the English daily.