When the draw for the group stage of the Champions League placed Paris Saint-Germain in the “group of death”, with Borussia Dortmund, Newcastle and AC Milan, the capital club had anticipated some turbulence on its way. A month after feeling the first tremors on the Newcastle pitch (1-4), Paris once again swayed and cracked, Tuesday November 7, this time at the San Siro stadium, against AC Milan (1-2).
Qualification for the round of 16 of the Champions League – which the Qatari version of PSG has always obtained – is not yet in question but Paris, 2nd in Group F, is in danger with two matches remaining in the phase. of groups. The fault is the intensity shown by the AC Milan players throughout the match, the Parisian excitement in defense and the French present in the Rossoneri ranks this evening.
PSG, however, approached this meeting with more guarantees than their opponent, because Luis Enrique’s players had won the first leg easily, barely two weeks ago at the Parc des Princes (3-0). But also because AC Milan struggled to emerge in recent weeks after a good start to the season. The Rossoneri remained in four games without a win – including three defeats – and had still not scored a single goal in three Champions League matches.
Rafael Leao and Olivier Giroud corrected this anomaly for an outgoing semi-finalist. The first, brimming with activity throughout the match, equalized for the Milanese with an acrobatic return (12th), just three minutes after Milan Skriniar opened the scoring (9th). At the time, the Parisian defender had followed Marquinhos’ deflection on an attacking PSG corner.
PSG in difficulty facing Milan transitions
“We started the match well, we controlled well at the start,” underlined Marquinhos at Canal’s microphone after the match. But very quickly, the tempo imposed by Paris was shattered against the Milanese and the opportunities multiplied on both sides. “We got too involved in Milan’s game and that didn’t allow us to have control over the match,” lamented Vitinha, the Portuguese midfielder for PSG, on Canal.
The intensity of the first period offered some situations to Paris. Before declining in the second period, Ousmane Dembélé was omnipresent and lacked success by finding the crossbar of Mike Maignan (27th). Kylian Mbappé, discreet throughout the match, for his part wasted his best opportunity by missing a sharp point against the Blues goalkeeper (25th).
Clumsy offensively, the Parisians above all demonstrated great defensive feverishness. “Milan exploited their strengths by moving forward quickly and we suffered a lot from that,” Marquinhos conceded after the match. The PSG captain, like his other teammates in defense, struggled a lot behind their backs in the face of the rapid transition play of the Milan players.
Leao’s first goal came from there and if Paris did not concede other goals in this type of sequence, it is notably thanks to Gianluigi Donnarumma. For his return to San Siro against his former club, the Italian goalkeeper of PSG was not destabilized by the boos of the public and often saved his team, by capturing the attempts of Rafael Leao (3rd), Yunus Musah (11th). ) and pushing back those of Fikayo Tomori (32nd), Noah Okafor (85th) and Théo Hernandez (63rd).
Paris will play its qualification in the last two matches
The French full-back was still decisive by sending a cross to the line for Giroud, who dominated Skriniar with a header to become the oldest French scorer in the Champions League (51st). “When they took the lead, they got further behind and we struggled to find the spaces. The Milan team defended better,” admitted Marquinhos, who recalled that “qualifying is the most important thing.”
2nd in its group, one point behind Borussia Dortmund (1st), who won earlier in the day against Newcastle (2-0), PSG has limited room for maneuver, with one unit ahead of Milan (3rd) and two on the Magpies (4th). While Luis Enrique, PSG coach, had announced that the two matches against AC Milan would be “crucial”, his team ultimately only took three points during this double confrontation.
The capital club will have to win against Newcastle on November 28 at the Parc des Princes to approach the group’s last meeting, on the pitch of Borussia Dortmund in December, with greater confidence. A match that Paris could approach with a lump in its stomach: after this defeat on Tuesday at AC Milan, PSG has only won two of its last eleven away matches in the Champions League.
