This game was a massive worrying sign for this PSG team. PSG was able to just sneak past Juventus with a 2-1 in the Parc-de-Princes, even though they played dreadfully for half of the night.
This game showed the both the beauty of PSG’s football, and the ugliness of it too.
That first half performance was one of the best displays of football we’ll probably see in this Champions League season. PSG was all over a much-weaker Juventus team as Neymar, Leo Messi, and Kylian Mbappe ran riot through Juve’s backline.
And it only took them 5 minutes to score the opening goal as new signing Vitinha, who’s been really impressive for PSG so far, passed the ball over to Mbappe in Juve’s final third to start off the move.
The French forward then drove towards the Juve defense, laid off the ball to Neymar and continued his forward run into Juve’s box; Neymar masterfully chipped the ball over the entire Juve defense for Mbappe to half-volley a rocket shot past Juve’s Mattia Perin and into the back of the net.
You don’t need me to tell you how loud the roars and cheers from the Paris fans were when Mbappe was wheeling away to celebrate his phenomenal goal.
Yet, Juve nearly equalized only 15 minutes later as Juan Cuadrado whipped in a teasing cross that beat Sergio Ramos and landed right on Arkadiusz Milik’s head, who was just outside the 6-yeard box. Donnarumma had to pull off a fantastic reflex save to keep the ball out, and then Ramos had to clear a Dušan Vlahović backheel attempt off the line to keep the score 1-0.
As I said in the beginning, this PSG side is a literal representation Doctor Jeckell/Mr. Hyde in football. They can be scintillatingly brilliant in one minute, and then dreadfully incompetent the next.
Anyway, PSG went back to being scintillating as, in the 21′, Marco Verratti threw off two Juventus defenders with just a simple glance (yes, I’m being serious; go watch the goal, it is great), he then played the ball into Mbappe’s path, who one-touched it to Hakami, who then returned the ball to Mbappe, and he fired the shot past Perin to double PSG’s lead.
I truly believe that the brilliance of Verratti has really been overlooked by a majority of fans and the media, probably because he plays in midfield for PSG.
When talking about the French Giants, everyone usually brings up the greatness of Mbappe, Messi, and Neymar, or they’ll talk about Sergio Ramos and Marquinhos in defense. Yet, it is Verratti who has linked the defense to the attack for so long, and I wanted to give him a mention as he created the second goal with his deft eye/body movement.
Nevertheless, there was a few more half-chances for PSG in that first half, but it ended with the reigning French Champions up 2-0 over the failing Italian Giants.
After that first half, I would have placed money on PSG scoring another two or three to kill off this game. Juve looked old and slow, while PSG was fast, breathtaking, and ruthless with their chances.
However, PSG’s second half performance couldn’t have been more contrary to their first half performance. They were simply outplayed and outworked by Juventus in the second half, and they nearly lost because of it.
Juve came out of the break determined and dogged as they scored their first goal of the game in the 52′ from a corner. The ball was whipped in from the corner flag, curled past Donnarumma who came out of his net to catch it, and Juve’s Weston McKennie outjumped Marquinhos to head the ball into any empty net.
This goal was such a horrible callback to PSG’s defensive mistakes from years past for all PSG fans.
It was a combination of poor decision making, poor concentration, and really bad luck. Donnarumma should have realized he was never going to be able to collect the cross, Marquinhos should never have been outjumped by McKennie, and PSG were just downright unlucky to give up a corner in that moment as they had a chance to kill off the game.
Sadly, the rest of the game was a boring, defensive slog as PSG’s new manager, Christophe Galtier, had his team take full possession of the ball and had them run down the clock with side-to-side passes and movements.
There were still a few good chances for both teams in the final 30 minutes, with Dušan Vlahović nearly scoring with a header in the 55′ and Mbappe just missing with a shot in the 63′, but the energy from the first half was well and truly gone. They lost their chance to prove all the doubters wrong.
If PSG hopes to go far in this tournament, then they need to capitalize on their chances when the momentum of the game begins to turn against them. It’s easy to score handfuls of goals against inferior or rebuilding sides, such as was Juventus tonight, but if PSG continues making the mistake of allowing these opponents back into the game, then the French Champions will face defeat once again.
It is really strange and ironic to say to a team with Leo Messi, Kylian Mbappe, and Neymar needs to be more clinical, but it’s true. The only way PSG will be able to break their curse and win the Champions League is if Messi, Mbappe, and Neymar are able to score when the flow of the game is up for grabs/in the opponents’ hands.
As for Juventus, they put up a good fight, but are obviously out of their depth. Ten years of consecutive Serie A titles and two Champions League Finals appearances with their old core was a fantastic achievement. But they now need to rely on their young players if they want to rebuild properly and become competitive again in the near future.
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