Paris Saint-Germain drew back in the last second from Reims (1-1), who deserved their point, and confirmed their miss in Ligue 1 on Sunday for Matchday 20.
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And the Reims bank exploded, their young coach Will Still (30 years old) initially overjoyed. Florian Balogun used a poor back pass from youngster Warren Zaire-Emery (16′) and defeated Gianluigi Donnarumma (90’+6′) in a duel.
The Parisians, ten since the 59th minute and the exclusion of Marco Verratti, have cracked, they are not distancing themselves from their pursuers, who have also kept them at bay in the previous days. Lens (2nd) is three lengths away and Olympique de Marseille (3rd) is five.
But Still’s men, unbeaten in thirteen games, didn’t steal it. The Belgian, who had become number one since October 13 following Oscar Garcia’s retirement and confirmed his position ahead of the start of the World Cup, made his team play bravely and it was rewarded.
PSG have failed to find fluidity in their game, Christophe Galtier’s main target at the moment. A somewhat lucky goal from Neymar (51st) was not enough.
Verratti, fourteen minutes and a red
PSG failed to fully reactivate the combinations between its three stars. Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappé searched for more than 90 minutes, but the magic of the “MNM” never really shone on Sunday night. They sketched out a few dance moves together, like this counterattack in the 77th minute, without finishing the moves well.
Paris collective play paled even in comparison to Reims’ and the trio often got tangled up in the nets of Reims’ rearguard, right up to the goal where a shot deflected by Achraf Hakimi from Lionel Messi landed on ‘Ney’.
The turning point of the game came with a double decision corrected by the video referee, a tough tackle by Marco Verratti against Junya Ito that saw the card changed from yellow to red, but Ruddy Buquet also canceled the penalty he was awarded for in the ensuing seconds a provisional offside (58th).
The Italy midfielder, who returned from injury, only came on for Vitinha at the break. His match lasted fourteen minutes…
After this double fact, the match changed unexpectedly at first. The Rémois, patient until then, hastened and ran into danger much more often.
Reims played
It took a big save from Yehvann Diouf from Kylian Mbappé (62) and the crossbar on a Sergio Ramos header (64) to prevent Paris from doubling their lead ten-on-eleven.
Achraf Hakimi was also thinking of a goal, but was ruled offside (65′).
The Champenois regained their discipline to threaten Donnarumma’s cage again, through Folarin Balogun (73′) or a close shot at Mitchell van Bergen (90′).
In the final moments, even goalkeeper Diouf went up to try and grab a point.
Reims have always tried to play good football on Sunday nights. Its players shone, particularly Balogun, author of his 11th goal in L1, and the central hinge formed by captain Yunis Abdelhamid and Emmanuel Agbdaou.
The most prominent was Marshall Munetsi, the sheriff of the Reims attack, who urged the Italian goalkeeper to make a good save (17th) and attempted a nice return (29th), then a heel countered by Sergio Ramos (38th).
Donnarumma, who was beaten after scoring, is another cause for concern, his shooting game was still very average and from the first minute when a full axis regeneration was already failing Balogun. PSG still have a lot to do.