After the initial victory at the Parc des Princes against Borussia Dortmund, PSG experienced its first major European trip of the season this Wednesday evening, on the Newcastle lawn, surprising 4th in the last Premier League season. In a Saint James Park as it often boils, the capital club presented itself in the 4-2-4 launched against OM ten days ago, with a quartet, from left to right, Mbappé-Kolo-Muani- Ramos-Dembélé. It seemed a good idea when Mbappé served a lonesome Dembélé at the far post whose rebound grazed the post (5th).
But the offensive device chosen by Luis Enrique placed the Parisians in difficulty in the middle, opposed to a Guimarães-Tonali-Longstaff trio, and in the restarts, like Marquinhos. The Brazilian had few solutions, and this led to a bad full-axis pass, intercepted by the Magpies. Donnarumma saved in front of Isak but Almiron appeared to finish with his left paw (1-0, 17th). Enough to delight the supporters and put even more pressure on the Parisians jostled by the intense opposing pressure.
The defense collapsed
PSG couldn’t do it, greatly hampered by the excess of energy from Eddie Howe’s players and far from its usual technical mastery. For the first time this season, Luis Enrique’s initial choices did not work and PSG would give in a second time, after an unclear action, which resulted in a point-blank header from the immense Dan Burn, dominating a Skriniar suddenly very small (2-0, 42nd). Returning from the locker room, same pattern, for the coaches and in the game, since Newcastle continued to crush PSG. Longstaff took advantage of Skriniar’s apathy to infiltrate the area and punish an uninspired Donnarumma (3-0, 50th).
PSG took the cup, but Lucas Hernandez offered a breath of fresh air by reducing the score, using a nice ball over Zaire-Emery, one of the few to survive in the intensity (3-1, 56th) . Luis Enrique persisted with his 4-2-4, consecutively launching Barcola in place of a disastrous Kolo-Muani, and Vitinha in place of an overwhelmed Ugarte. Dembélé wasted a 3-2 ball (69th), and found Pope’s gloves (77th) with a big shot. Paris thus showed itself to be more dashing at the end of the match, but the nightmare would continue until added time. Fabian Schär sent a missile after a fierce recovery (4-1, 90+1). With this defeat, PSG let Newcastle take the lead in Group F, but above all demonstrated deficiencies, unfortunately recurring and crippling in their quest for the European holy grail.
The group ranking
