Women's Champions League: PSG clings to the top

The downside is to be found in the decor.

For such a poster in the semi-final first leg of the Champions League, the Loges camp remains insufficient, even bathed in sunshine like this Sunday afternoon.

Especially when PSG and Barça deliver to the hundred spectators (media, officials, guests), including Mauricio Pochettino and Presnel Kimpembe, such an intense performance.

Although at ease on this lawn of the country Georges-Lefèvre stadium, the players deserved to return to the Parc des Princes for a third time this season (after two receptions from OL).

It is also a question of prestige.

This point aside, hats off to Parisians and Barcelona, ​​who leave good friends (1-1) at the end of “a very high level match”, which the two coaches emphasized.

A week after the feat of PSG in Lyon in the quarter-finals (2-1), Olivier Echouafni could fear the physical condition of his players, deprived of Kadi Diani (ankle sprain).

But, at the outset, like the interventions of the captain, Irene Paredes, or the experienced Formiga, they are present in the rhythm and in the impact.

“It becomes physically hard with this level of intensity,” says Echouafni.

But the girls got through on their own.

This is far from a bad result.

"

Our feminine @NavasKeylor 🤩

¡Grande @TIANEendler!

https://t.co/Fb6fZqw6PS

- Paris Saint-Germain (@PSG_inside) April 25, 2021

To concede a draw at home with an opposing goal remains a bad operation for the scorers of OL, five-time defending champion. However, they could have lost this meeting. Thanks to Chris Endler and his golden gloves, decisive five times (9th, 35th, 36th, 53, 68th) against the Catalans. But even the best goalkeeper in the world can be wrong, as on the Barcelona goal (13th), signed by the former Parisian Jennifer Hermoso, where she does not control her exit. "It ensures us to stay in the race for qualification", retains Echouafni, rightly.

If the Chilean goalkeeper has had so much work, it is also because of a Parisian team less serene in the face of the possession and the intense pressing set up by this team with "Barça DNA". As with the men, the Blaugranas handle the ball like no one else. But, as with men, they are in danger on set piece and on transition. On a corner, PSG, thanks to Alana Cook (21st), quickly equalized. In counterattack, Marie-Antoinette Katoto could have turned into a hero Kylian Mbappé way without his two face-to-face failures (42nd, 44th), including a post.

"We will have to be more efficient in front and more compact defensively", summarizes Echouafni. More disciplined also after a committed match (five warnings), during which Barça should have received a penalty. See you next Sunday at the Mini Estadi Johan-Cruyff for the return trip. A much nicer setting to aim for a Champions League final.