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On the first leg, Brest had already given PSG a hard time. An accident ? Not really. Paris led 2-0 again on Sunday. And Brest came back to 2-2 again. Fairly. This time, no saving penalty from Kylian Mbappé to snatch victory. 2-2, final score. “The first period was one of our best of the season and the second, one of the worst,” railed Luis Enrique, “annoyed” with his players but recognizing that we must “give credit to Brest”. Indeed. “That says a lot… The qualities of this group and the mental qualities above all, never giving up. Being down 2-0 at the Parc des Princes is an evening that could turn into a nightmare… But this team always believed in it and they were rewarded. Tonight, it’s very rewarding to have had this content on this match and against this opponent. Congratulations to the boys. It’s a very nice evening”, jubilant the Breton coach, “proud to coach this group”. There is something. More third than ever in the Ligue 1 standings before facing Nice, the Brestois are having a dream season. How far will they go?
Also read Brest: “Europe? We say it among ourselves every time, we laugh about it,” slips Pereira Lage after the draw against PSG
Without Ousmane Dembélé and with Randal Kolo Muani scoring but still messy, PSG relied a lot on its left side and flashes from Bradley Barcola on Sunday. The driving force behind Paris-SG was him. It was thanks to the former Lyonnais that the Rouge et Bleu got their first chances at the start of the match. And he is involved in both Parisian goals: decisive passer for the first, the work of Marco Asensio, it is again he who puts said Asensio into orbit for the second. Except that Marco Bizot intervened. Kolo Muani therefore finished the job. After the break, Barcola once again showed himself to be the most active, the most dangerous, the most capable of making a difference. Unfortunately, it is without him that Paris will travel to Strasbourg on Friday since he received a second warning in stoppage time. That did not prevent the public at the Parc from cheering him on his exit.
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After a painful 3-2 Parisian victory in the first leg in Brittany and this 2-2 draw at the Parc des Princes, the third clash of the season between PSG and Brest promises to be even more enticing. It will be February 7, still in Paris, but as part of the round of 16 of the Coupe de France this time. “That gives no guarantee on the Coupe de France match. Especially since it will necessarily be a different match. PSG will be a little closer to the Champions League. But the boys also realized this evening that they are capable of competing, of annoying PSG. We will come as we do in every match, with ambitions. Afterwards, I can’t tell you what will happen, but we will try to qualify even if we would perhaps have preferred another draw,” smiles Éric Roy. It promises… This time, there will definitely be a winner. “We laughed about it among ourselves, but if we were 2-2 at the end and it was the Coupe de France, it was penalties… Afterwards, it was 50-50. But if we play this kind of match, we can hope for something,” says Mathias Pereira Lage, also author of a magnificent Madjer for the 2-2 goal.
CLAW STRIKES
Luis Enrique makes no secret of it: he wants to surprise his opponents with his starting lineups. If possible without surprising your own players but by “taking them out of their comfort zone”. Except that it’s sometimes a little complicated to follow your logic. A priori, Ousmane Dembélé and Marquinhos were not injured. However, he chose to put them on the bench in the profile of Randal Kolo Muani, right winger, and Lucas Beraldo, left back. The presence of the Brazilian rookie in the eleven made it possible to refocus Lucas Hernandez, left axis in the central hinge when the ball was lost and at the heart of the three-way defense in the possession phase. Warren Zaire-Emery (again) had to struggle with the role of hybrid piston on the right, while Vitinha and Fabian Ruiz alternated as sentry, with the returning Marco Asensio as leader, Barcola and Kolo Muani very far apart and Kylian Mbappé in the axis. Changes, more changes… All with a squad already weakened by selection departures (Hakimi, Lee) and injuries (Mendes, Skriniar, Kimpembe). Difficult to navigate from the stand. What about players? We can ask ourselves the question. Not very reassuring before C1.
This is not the first time that Kylian Mbappé has produced this type of match, annoyed, out of time and clumsy in front of goal. Except that most of the time, he makes you forget everything with a flick of his magic paw. Not Sunday. The captain of the French team obviously did not have a great night and never found the key to the field, despite some good situations. He did not finish with average in the Figaro ratings. “An anti-Mbappé plan? No not necessarily. Afterwards, he’s certainly the best player on the planet, it’s very hard to stop him. With his speed, he put us in difficulty quite a few times. We didn’t put anything against him but he’s a great player,” said Pereira Lage. On Sunday, he was a normal player.
Certainly, Stade Brestois provided the ingredients to recover in the second half. Coach Roy’s warning shot paid off. “At half-time, he moved us a little,” recognizes Mahdi Camara. “I had a bit of a harsh speech,” admits the former Nice coach. Well seen. From there to dominating PSG in this way… “We fell asleep a little,” summarizes Lucas Hernandez, struggling to explain this breakdown. Complacency? Maybe a little bit. “It is better to achieve this second period and this result today than against Real Sociedad,” breathes the French international. Not false. Luis Enrique was unable to explain this slack either. In any case, the Spaniard is not good to take after a negative result. “We lost control of the match. For what ? Because it’s football, not basketball,” he railed, contemptuously, on Amazon Prime Video. Deal with that… Parisian supporters can only hope that “Lucho”’s analyzes are more in-depth in the secrecy of the locker room.