Lionel Messi scored a brilliant goal. Gianluigi Donnarumma kept a clean sheet. Paris Saint-Germain won, easing immediately any sense of unease that might have been threatening to develop after the opening-week draw against Club Brugge . All is well for Mauricio Pochettino and Nasser al-Khelaifi. The crowd at Parc des Princes can relax, take their celebratory selfies and send whatever gleeful WhatsApps they like. Perhaps this will, at last, be their season.
And yet, comfortable as Tuesday’s win over Manchester City ultimately was, fitting as it was that Messi should get off the mark for his new club with a strike of that nature against a fellow petroclub, the one managed by the coach with whom he twice won the Champions League, there must still be concerns.
Having a forward line of Neymar, Messi and Kylian Mbappé, enticing as it may sound, enticing as it may look, brings problems. With Neymar unusually diligent, PSG’s forward line attempted 10 pressures in the final third on Tuesday; City’s attempted 29 – and that despite City having more of the ball: if you have three players disinclined or unable to press but whose brilliance and status means they must be selected, what can you do? It’s a problem that has undermined not only PSG in recent years but also Barcelona and Juventus.
This story is from the September 30, 2021 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the September 30, 2021 edition of The Guardian.
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