What if Florentino Perez was not wrong? What if football matches were too long, after all? The president of Real Madrid evoked, a week ago, this slippery track to clumsily hang up his Super League project to a supposed capacity of concentration of goldfish of the young generation, according to a very personal and unfounded reasoning.
But for Paris-Saint-Germain, the semi-final first leg of the Champions League was indeed too long a half against Manchester City, a quiet but relentless force, Wednesday April 28, at the Parc des Princes. With a 2-1 victory, the Citizens took a serious option to play their first final of the flagship European competition, before the return match, Tuesday, May 4, at the Etihad Stadium.
A big month from the end of the season, PSG is still a difficult object to identify. With this team, midweek truths are good to throw in the trash on weekends. In the league, as in the European Cup for that matter. When we said cured, she relapsed, when we consider it a simple addition of individualities, it shows a remarkable collective strength as in the previous round to get out the defending champion, Bayern Munich.
For a half on Wednesday, Paris looked the leader of the English championship in the eye. Better, Mauricio Pochettino’s players forced the Mancunians to shared custody of the ball, which never goes without saying against a team led by Pep Guardiola, a relentless theoretician of possession. “We had problems keeping the ball, also because the Parisians have quality”, greeted the Spanish manager at a press conference.
“It’s hard to run behind the ball”
Without multiplying the scoring opportunities, PSG gave a feeling of control, he which is reduced too much to the dazzles of Neymar and Kilian Mbappé. In the shadow of this duo, Angel Di Maria emerged from his shell, shining like George Harrison when John Lennon and Paul McCartney let his discreet talent blossom within The Beatles.
At the quarter of an hour of play, the left foot of the Argentinian found, on a corner, the head of Marquinhos for the opener. Removed from the field due to injury for three weeks, the captain has returned to his good habits, that of the defender who almost always rises and scores in major European meetings.
Before the return match, it will be necessary not to go through losses and crash this first half. At least to give yourself courage. At least to say that Manchester City can sometimes purr and take longer to enter a semi-final than its leaders to leave the Super League.
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