"Well done dad, you're too strong!"
Isaac Gueye did not wait for his father's return on Thursday morning to tell him how much he admired him.
Draped in a PSG jersey, it is all smiles that the eldest son of the Senegalese environment, barely 3 years old, praised the performance of his father in a video relayed by Pauline, his mother, after the victory of the PSG on the lawn of Bayern (3-2).
But the "great Gana" is not only on the rise at home.
Wednesday evening, he sealed his world, Müller, Sané and the caïds of the Bavarian environment by his incessant activity, his resentment in combat and his stubbornness to come and rot their assaults.
There was something for him, inevitably, when Mauricio Pochettino assured, in the wake of success, that "nothing would have been possible without the talent of the players" and that they "really deserve credit for their performance" made in Bavaria.
"The basis of his game is there, in the activity, the presence"
Beyond behavior, the stats also remind us that the 31-year-old Senegalese midfielder has undoubtedly served as a bottle of oxygen for a Paris sometimes on the verge of asphyxiation, due to its meager 36% of possession.
In the shadow of the scorers and decisive assistants, he was nevertheless the "Mr. Plus" of this quarter-final first leg: he is the Parisian to have made the most passes in the Munich camp (16) for example, to have touched the most balls (57) also and the one, above all, to win 78% of his duels.
"We found the Idrissa Gueye of Real", assures Alain Giresse, who installed him in the selection of Senegal, in reference to the XXL match that the former Everton had delivered against Madrid (3-0), in September 2019, during his first season in the capital.
“This match configuration, during which you take successive waves in the face, calls on all of its qualities.
He squirts on the right, intervenes on the left, intercepts in the axis, breaks actions, harasses everything that moves and revives properly ... The basis of his game is there, in the activity, the presence.
Like any player, even the most technical, Gana just needs to be physically on top because his engine consumes a lot of energy.
"
Security for Pochettino
This explains, no doubt, its change of status in recent weeks.
If rumors of a possible departure of the Senegalese accompanied the beginnings of their collaboration in January, Gueye and Pochettino quickly found common interests.
The intensity of the sessions led by Tuchel's successor make the former Lille player happy for whom hard work is a precious ally.
In a workforce where the players break like glass and multiply the suspensions, the one Giresse sees as the "N'Golo Kanté of PSG" is almost a security for a Pochettino constantly forced to tinker with complementarities in the midfield .
"We are absolutely not surprised at Idrissa's qualities," Pochettino said at a press conference on Friday.
We know him from England, from his time at Everton.
He is a professional player, we are happy with his performances and what he brings to the team.
“For proof, the one who carries his good humor and his love of dance to the locker room, has just played all the shocks in Ligue 1 as in the Champions League in the costume of the holder.
And for Alain Giresse, there is no reason for that to change.
"Because beyond his qualities which make that, for me, the best pair is to associate him with Verratti, Idrissa is a player who has such anger on the field, such a propensity to never hide that 'with it you can go anywhere.
"