If Luis Enrique sees potential in his team, we can’t help but continue to see doubts. After three days of the Champions League and the draw conceded on Tuesday at home against PSV Eindhoven (1-1), his team has only four points and seriously complicates the task in view of direct qualification to the round of 16.
It was an evening to put questions aside, to finally make a good impression by imposing your game against a second-class opponent in Europe. Instead, Marquinhos’ teammates continue to stay afloat, even if they perhaps have big regrets and hope to be more effective on Sunday evening in Marseille.
Paris will be able to bite its fingers for not taking it and only blame itself for having experienced such a waste in the last gesture. But with a little more success, PSV could have even left with the three points and Dutch midfielder Til still has to wonder how he could have lost a duel that was available to him (60th).
Hakimi and the end of a curse
The first 25 minutes had outlined the contours of a promising evening. We told ourselves that this PSG had finally put itself into Champions mode: intense in recovering the ball, dynamic in transmissions, the Parisian team only lacked efficiency in the final gesture.
Achraf Hakimi, (2nd), Bradley Barcola (11th, 27th), Kang-in Lee (16th) and, above all, Ousmane Dembélé (19th, 30th), we will return to this, showed a clear deficit in front of goal . A sort of anniversary since during the break, PSG showed this terrible statistic: 88 consecutive shots without managing to score and 10 goals found since the semi-final played against Dortmund last season. History will remember that it was Achraf Hakimi who put an end to this curse, after 94 failed attempts, with a long-range shot (55th), for which Benitez is not free from all criticism, to raise the score.
When will there be a real attacker?
Paris, after having suffered a large aerial gap, has been chasing the result for 20 minutes and if Luis Enrique is not the type to point the finger at the responsibility of a particular player, he could still blame Dembélé. His first period was a model of inaccuracy, a masterclass in failure and a concentration of all that there is to do.
Or it was a way for the international to validate the thesis of his coach who explained, before the trip to Arsenal, that his presence on the pitch did not prevent his team from falling. Seeing him miss ready chances (19th) can generate frustration, but for him to show so much laxity on Noa Lang’s goal (34th) is difficult to accept, while he remains one of the most experienced players on his team.
We can’t even blame all the problems of this team on him and in the end it becomes urgent to resolve the issue of the number 9 too. Playing without a striker in Ligue 1 is one thing, applying the same scheme in the Champions League, with a Kang-In Lee who he constantly dezones, while he has Marco Asensio, certainly the player with the best understanding, is another thing. And it’s not the rich menu (Atlético Madrid, Bayern Munich, Manchester City) that encourages optimism.
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