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Paris Saint-Germain defeats RB Leipzig: how did they get away with it?

2020-11-25T14:37:43.892Z


A defeat against RB Leipzig - and troubled days would have waited for Thomas Tuchel. This scenario was averted for the time being: with walls, bolts and a lucky Neymar goal.


Icon: enlarge

The game's goalscorer and his coach: Neymar with Thomas Tuchel

Photo: 

FRANCK FIFE / AFP

Tuchel's endgame:

Before the game you could often read about coach Thomas Tuchel and his situation at Paris Saint-Germain.

The Champions League duel against RB Leipzig actually looked like a final, one of the terrible kind, as you have had to see it many times in football history: A lot of nervousness, many mistakes - and a team that defended with all its might and in front hoped for a brilliant moment of their individual masters.

A team that really wanted to win this one game.

No matter how.

That team was PSG.

Result of the game

: Paris are far from their form from the Champions League tournament in August.

Very far.

It was enough for RB Leipzig that evening.

The duel ended 1-0, decided by an extremely questionable penalty.

The possible early knockout for PSG in the group stage and the first one during the rule of the Qatari financiers has been averted for the time being.

Tuchel is allowed to take a short breath.

Read the match report here.

You can find the group overview here.

Another, a worse PSG:

Almost 14 weeks have only passed since the Champions League final with PSG, and there is nothing of the strong mix - back the defensive around ex-captain Thiago Silva, in front especially Neymar and Kylian Mbappé more left.

The team has ailing key players in all parts of the team.

But the Paris problems are particularly clear in the back four, which had to be changed in all positions compared to the Bayern game three months ago (departures, injuries, suspensions).

The result: a team and trainer in emergency mode.

One of the newcomers who can

do

little for the crisis:

Mitchel Bakker, 20, left defender, joined Ajax Amsterdam's second team a year ago on a free transfer.

Free transfer, which is not a bad thing at first, is only particularly noticeable in Paris, where transfer fees have already been paid in three-digit amounts.

And Bakker stood out that evening, with minor mistakes, but above all because a second Parisian always defended at his side for security.

All backwards, all together:

PSG often retreated far into their own half with all ten field players.

And if you came under a bit more pressure there, the balls would just pop forward.

In the closing stages, the long blows were cheered loudly from the bench.

All of this seemed bumbling, but the way the entire team celebrated the attempts at liberation also speaks for a certain team spirit.

It was just going well again.

The fact that the Parisians got away with it in the end is also devastating for RB.

The moment that decided the »final«:

In finals, a small thing can make a difference, the contact - which you couldn't clearly see even after several slow motion - before the penalty kick in the eleventh minute was such a thing.

As lightly as possible, Marcel Sabitzer apparently touched the Argentinean Ángel Di María on the leg and he immediately went down.

A (very, very) generous whistle, a mediocre penalty from Neymar, an important goal.

PSG played the lucky goal perfectly with their wall tactics.

And the hit was the culmination of a miserable performance.

Icon: enlarge

He's on the ground, he gets the penalty: Ángel Di María

Photo: YOAN VALAT / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock

Tuchel's problems:

Thinking from game to game, that's a cheap football

phrase

.

It applies to Tuchel's situation.

The coach has been counted for months and the hypothermic relationship with the powerful sports director Leonardo is told again and again.

In the summer, both parties could not agree on a line in terms of access (they could have done better), the German coach's contract also expires next summer.

The fact that Tuchel was the first PSG coach to reach the premier class final - that success, we know today, only calmed the tense situation for a short time.

The next finals:

Football is an adventure sport and that's why this lackluster win against RB Tuchel provides some calm.

But there will be more finals waiting for the coach - for example, the team will have to play at Manchester United next Wednesday.

Then it's all about again.

Icon: The mirror

Source: spiegel

All sports articles on 2020-11-25

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