Last weekend, Paris won the championship against Lens, but in Strasbourg, PSG’s stars once again failed to get beyond a draw. The hosts thus continue to hope for Europe.
Mauricio Pochettino did not spare any of his attacking stars after the early championship win in the 1-1 draw against Lens and started Neymar, Messi and Mbappé. For the first time, however, the Strasbourg attack played, which in sixth place still had justified hopes of reaching Europe.
The home side took a very early lead through a lightning goal by Gameiro (2nd) and held on in the following. Again and again, Julien Stephan’s boys put pinpricks in the PSG defence. But once the Parisians showed their class and it was 1-1: With a perfect pass, Neymar outwitted the Strasbourg defence and Mbappé coolly finished (23rd).
By the break, Messi had just missed a free-kick (28th), but the hosts were also dangerous again through Bellegarde’s long-range effort (44th). After the break, PSG breathed a sigh of relief with another shot from the second row. This time Prcic tried it from distance (56th).
Mbappé scores a brace and sets the tone
However, PSG became more dominant and scored two goals in four minutes: First it was Neymar again, who served Mbappé well. The latter, however, crossed again to Hakimi, who only had to push in (64th). A little later, Mbappé scored a brace when he jumped on a horror backpass from Djiku and scored to make it 3:1 (68.).
In the final phase, Verratti made it even more exciting with a failed attempt to clear the ball when it bounced off his knee and into his own goal (75th). The Strasbourg team rebelled again and became dangerous again and again. But it was not until stoppage time that they made their presence felt. Diallo missed, but the future Mainz player Caci did better shortly before the end and volleyed home a cross (90.+2).
With the point, Strasbourg jumped to fifth place and still has a good chance of playing in Europe next season. The Alsatians are next Sunday’s guests in Brest – PSG welcomes Troyes.
