The situation was clear before the kick-off of this match between Paris and Lorient. PSG needed to manage. Next Wednesday, the Parisians will face Bayern Munich in the semi-final second leg. The first leg, a little earlier in the week, was exceptional (5-4). Obviously, the return will require having its best players fresh and available. But against the Merlus, for PSG, there was a lot at stake because Lens is still there in ambush with a direct confrontation coming, and each point left on the way in the title race can be costly. Luis Enrique therefore took a gamble. Facing Lorient, ninth in the standings and without pressure, he only brought back two starters from Wednesday’s XI: Désiré Doué and Willian Pacho. The rest ? A slightly tinkered eleven. And it showed for 90 minutes.
Forced to compensate for Hakimi’s injury and the resting of Warren Zaire-Emery, Luis Enrique relied on Senny Mayulu on the right side. And the latter produced a very average copy, even disappointing. Irregular in his choices, overwhelmed in one-on-one defensive situations, he let the Lorient left side create problems. And he was absent from Pagis’ equalizer, leaving the Lorient striker all alone. In the middle, the young Dro Fernandez, established in the midfield, was not up to par either, invisible in the recovery and messy in the construction. As for Pierre Mounguengue, 18, who was making his professional debut, he experienced a difficult baptism, increasing the number of ball losses and was at the origin of the bad back pass which allowed Aiyegun Tosin to equalize.
Too short a workforce
Renato Marin, established for the first time in Parisian goals, also offered a mixed performance, alternating good gestures, including a nice save on Tosin in the money time, and hesitations. However in this match, PSG opened the scoring in the 6th minute. Lorient goalkeeper Mvogo pushed back a cross from Doué directly to Ibrahim Mbaye, who inherited a goal without really asking for it. And if the entries of Joao Neves and Warren Zaire-Emery did good with this goal from the Frenchman a few seconds after his entry, the lack of experience of the squad was lacking. And Luis Enrique reacted to this subject at a press conference. “No, I’m not happy when I don’t win the match. It’s impossible to be happy. If you’re happy, you can’t be a top coach. Thrilled ? No. But you have to accept it. The opponent has quality and it’s always important to know how difficult it is to play this type of match at this time, but we needed the three points. At the moment, the championship is still a little open and it’s difficult to manage that. »
This draw raises a question that Luis Enrique has known since the start of the season: the depth of PSG’s bench is not forgiving when playing on all counts. The usual replacements are simply not at the level of the starters, and this gap in quality is immediately visible when the executives do not play. And the young titis, often thrown in to breathe, are clearly not yet ready to take on high-level matches, even more so when sporting interest is still present. PSG remains leader, but this 2-2 reminds us that nothing has been done yet. See you on Wednesday for Bayern, who also played in the Bundesliga. Except that the German club, hung 3-3 by the bottom of the ranking, is already assured of being champion. For PSG, it will also be necessary to take on the challenges in Ligue 1 in eleven days for the direct clash against the Lensois.
