⚽️ ⚽️ Paris Saint-Germain ⚽️ ⚽️
PSG had a big showdown against Lille yesterday. It was a huge game, with a lot at stake, as it was a late season showdown between the two teams that were tied atop the Ligue 1 standings. Traditionally, PSG has been a truly powerhouse team in Ligue 1 in recent years, and had largely established themselves as the elite team, and even one of the better clubs on the European continent. However, Lille has played remarkably well to this point in the season, and for a long time, sat alone atop the Ligue 1 standings, with an eye towards securing the championship.
Again, though, the two teams were tied atop the rankings, with the winner (assuming the game would not result in a tie) set to take sole possession of first place in Ligue 1 outright. Here is what my brother had to say about the results in the comments section of my post on the pregame thoughts yesterday:
By now you've most likely heard that PSG lost that game, 0-1. (In France, and I believe in Europe in general, the home team's score is mentioned first.) The paradox continues: they may very well become only the second Ligue 1 club to win the Champions League (and the first since Marseille did so in 1993), while failing to win Ligue 1. They now have 8 losses in 31 games, whereas most seasons they have 4 or 5 losses tops by the end of the 38-game season. Of course, if they fall short in the Champions League, they run the risk of not winning anything this season, aside perhaps from the Coupe de France.
The only score in the game came in the 20th minute, when Jonathan David scored to give Lille the 1-0 lead. Lille's defense allowed the narrow lead to hold up for the entirety of the game, blanking PSG throughout, allowing this lead to stand up and give Lille the win, even though PSG had more good scoring opportunities, and Lille themselves were unable to score another goal.
This was not the only big news to come from this game. PSG superstar Neymar had an altercation with Lille's centre back, Tiago Djaló, in the tunnel after yesterday's game. Neymar actually pushed Djaló before being restrained.
Faced with so much bad news as a result of this big showdown, which feels like a missed opportunity, PSG coach Mauricio Pochettino conceded that this hurt PSG's chances of emerging as Ligue 1 champions this season:
"It's going to be difficult," Pochettino told PSG TV.
He elaborated:
"We knew very well that it was going to be tough until the end and of course we need to keep going and think of all competitions. We've got the Champions League coming up so we'll focus on that."
Observing in more detail as to why his team lost this game, specifically, Pochettino explained what he felt happened:
"They created fewer chances than us but they were more clinical in front of goal," Pochettino said.
"I think we deserved more at least a point or even three. In the end we lost and of course we're very disappointed with the result. We didn't create enough. We created more than them but not enough and maybe we showed a lack of aggression in the final third. We were thinking that with the dominance we would score but in the end the time ran out we didn't score and we lost the game."
PSG does not have much time to recover, as they need to get ready for the UEFA Champions League Quarterfinal against Bayern Munich, which they will play on Wednesday.
Below is the link to the article which I used in writing this particular blog entry, and from which I obtained and used the quotes from PSG coach Mauricio Pochettino:
Mauricio Pochettino: PSG face difficult task to win Ligue 1 title after Lille loss
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11820/12265123/mauricio-pochettino-psg-face-difficult-task-to-win-ligue-1-title-after-lille-loss
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