On the lawn of the Parc des Princes, Paris Saint-Germain hoped to take revenge after having been only a shadow of itself last October at St James Park against this solid Newcastle team. Unfortunately, during this 5th day of Group F of the Champions League, everything did not go as planned for Luis Enrique’s squad. We had to wait until the 98th minute for the Parisians to breathe a sigh of relief. Indeed, Kylian Mbappé scored a penalty, allowing the locals this Tuesday evening to equalize and take the point of the draw (1-1). The Magpies opened the scoring in the first period in an action where the defense was completely passive with Gianluigi Donnarumma, once again, at fault on Newcastle’s goal. An error which completes a terrible end to the month of November for the Italian. And yet, everything started so well at San Siro for his return to Milan.
“He has a lot of experience, personality. Football is a passion, the supporters have demonstrated their position. The environment is like that when you like a player. He played a great match,” rejoiced Luis Enrique at a press conference at San Siro, after the defeat of PSG during which the Italian goalkeeper had everyone in agreement against the Rossoneri with a total of six saves in an electric context for his return to Lombardy. As a reminder, the goalkeeper had been sprayed with thousands of small “Dollarumma” notes with the inscription “mercenary” under the Curva Sud stand on several occasions during the meeting, where several anti-anti-terrorism banners were also proudly displayed. – Gigio. Chants of insults and whistles were also echoed throughout the stadium. A few days later, he produced a gargantuan performance in the victory against Reims in Ligue 1 with seven saves. But this week, the scenario was very different.
Another mistake!
Against AS Monaco (4-1 victory), last Friday during the 13th day of Ligue 1, Gianluigi Donnarumma made a first big mistake on the restart. Indeed, the native of Castellammare di Stabia was guilty of a terrible ball on the foot, allowing the Monegasques to equalize through Takumi Minamino (22nd). “Football is a sport made of mistakes. The problem is that when it’s a striker or a midfielder it’s not serious, when it’s a goalkeeper it’s much more visible. The most important thing for me is that my players achieve on the pitch what I ask of them. Gigio was superb. He got up after a mistake. I make mistakes in every match. I am delighted with his performance”, had however put Luis Enrique into perspective at a press conference after the Parisian victory against Monaco last Friday. Rebelote et bis repetita for the Italian this Tuesday evening.
Against Newcastle, in a meeting that was nevertheless very decisive for his team which was at stake for its qualification or its survival in the event of a Parisian victory coupled with a different result than a Milan success against Dortmund, Gianluigi Donnarumma was not up to the task -YOU. Indeed, he never seemed calm – even if it was not helped by the laxity and passivity of his defense. Well before his big mistake, he put Achraf Hakimi in difficulty on his right side with a very bad recovery at the foot (12th), which will give a little more food for thought on the debate of his shortcomings at the foot. But the real black point of his evening lies in the action of the English opening score. After a dazzling breakthrough in the Parisian defense, Tino Livramento armed a shot that the Italian goalkeeper pushed back into the center of his area, which left plenty of time for Alexander Isak to push the ball into the back of the net (24th) . A very strange and even unusual hand mistake for Donnarumma who normally knows how to extend his 96 meter height to repel dangers on the sides. We will not forget his yellow card (72nd) for too virulent protest to Mr. Szymon Marciniak.
