Three days after its defeat in Leipzig in the Champions League, Paris-Saint-Germain regained allure, beating Rennes (3-0) thanks to a brace from Angel di Maria, Saturday, November 7 in Ligue 1.
Facing the Bretons, Thomas Tuchel’s team has chained an eighth consecutive success in Ligue 1 which consolidates it at the top of the standings, one more argument for him to defend his position, where he seemed more and more isolated.
His players did not let go, delivering a neat, efficient performance, embellished by the achievements of Moise Kean (11e) and Di Maria (21e, 73e), which allowed him to live a rather quiet evening.
A team of wounded
The nightmare lived in the second half in Leipzig (2-1) is forgotten, but new injuries will prevent him from dreaming too high: the limping outings of Idrissa Gueye (13e), Thilo Kehrer (36e), Alessandro Florenzi (45e) and Kean (60e) remind him of the current small size of his workforce.
In the case of the Senegalese, Tuchel mentioned the adductors, and for the German, pain “Serious” to the pubis. “We are in a very complicated circle, we guys use too much, but we have no choice”, said Swabia.
Despite its full infirmary (Neymar, Mbappé, Icardi, Draxler, Verratti, Bernat, Kimpembe …), Paris shone against one of its pet peeves, the team that won the most at the Parc des Princes de l Qatari era (three times), although being dominated on shots (16 against 9) and crosses (26-9).
But Rennes has reached its limits, interviews in the European Cup, between ineffectiveness and careless mistakes. Julien Stéphan’s team, which has won only one of its last five matches, can be ejected from the podium on Sunday if Nice beats Monaco. “We have a lot of progress to make in order to be able to fight against these teams”, conceded the Breton coach.
Confidence regained for Parisians
The repositioning of Marquinhos in central defense, alongside Abdou Diallo, after several freelancing in the middle which caused much talk, has borne fruit, in the absence of Presnel Kimpembe. “We wanted to give Danilo a break. I wanted to put experience alongside Abdou, and have a strong head defense ”, Tuchel justified, without initiating mea culpa: the debate therefore remains open.
On offense, Kean has confirmed he’s more than a double, scoring his 5e achievement of the season.
Angel di Maria also redeemed himself from his mixed match in Leipzig where he opened the scoring and missed a penalty. “Fideo” signed the goal of the break, with a little dive, his special, well started by Ander Herrera. He managed the double at the end of the match, with a strike from 25 meters to the ground, punishing the apathy of the Rennes defense, who claimed a fault at the start of the action. This goal, the 86e of his Parisian career, allows him to double the glory Safet Susic (1982-1991).
But “Dima” missed the icing on the cake: his sublime instantaneous recovery of 30 meters found the post of Alfred Gomis (14e). But Paris will very well be satisfied with that.
Paris has thus regained its confidence before a perilous streak: with the return match against Leipzig on November 24, and the trip to Manchester United a week later, PSG will play its European future as soon as it resumes. The expected returns of Neymar, Kylian Mbappé, Marco Verratti or Mauro Icardi will surely give him a different face from that shown in Germany.
