Back in the colors of PSG nineteen days after Brazil’s disappointment against Croatia, Neymar offered an interesting performance for an hour. Before his evening turned on the wrong side with a more than avoidable expulsion which could have penalized his club.
By Tom Binet, at the Parc des Princes
Modified
In two minutes, everything changed. Rather good – without being flamboyant either – so far, Neymar has seen his reunion with Ligue 1 turn into a nightmare. Two yellow cards in quick succession, including a second received following a grotesque simulation for the Brazilian, which put his team in difficulty. And if Paris managed to win without him, it’s not the recovery the capital club had dreamed of for its No. 10 auriverde.
It all started well though
Very free in the construction of the game in the absence of Lionel Messi – and while Kylian Mbappé spent 90 minutes exiled on the left wing – Neymar showed for an hour of play that he still had juice, less than three weeks after the road trip from Brazil to Qatar. Forgot his ankle injury and his little physical worries, he had to answer about his mental state. However, for a long time, the answers provided were rather encouraging. ” Ney alternated high game, low game, he moved a lot to touch the ball. I can understand that there is frustration because he wanted to find the rhythm and play the two games that presented themselves. Unfortunately, that won’t be the case.s”, regretted Christophe Galtier afterwards in a press conference about his playmaker.
It only took a quarter of an hour for the Brazilian to deliver his tenth assist of the season (just to catch up with Messi at the top of the standings) on a free kick for Marquinhos. The beginning of redemption for the two players of the Seleçao, we thought then. With 47 caviars, Neymar is the player with the most in Ligue 1 since his arrival in France in the summer of 2017. Unfortunately for him, he is also record keeper expulsions over the period with five red rusks received in six seasons.
And the Ney broke
The return of the smiles to his face will wait. As we play the 61e minute, Neymar eliminates Thomasson – on whom he had inflicted a devastating little bridge less than an hour earlier – in the central circle, before sticking his arm in his face. Yellow card. In the next minute, the artist finds nothing better to do than to throw himself into the surface, collecting the right to go to the shower before everyone else, ball under his arm. “I regret that over-commitment was not punished more severelystill pointed Galtier afterwards, while his player took many blows.A few minutes before, he also takes a very nasty blow and his first yellow card is very severe compared to the faults he has suffered.»
Despite everything, the trainer could only see the error of his no. 10, indisputable. Worse still, just minutes after letting his friends fight in numerical inferiority, Canal + announced that the man had left the Parc des Princes to return home. He will therefore not have taken advantage of the clamor of the stadium to accompany Kylian Mbappé’s winning penalty after six minutes of added time. A goal he might have been able to score himself, if the scenario had been different. Instead, he is suspended for the perilous trip on Sunday, to the Lensois dolphin. Not sure that Lionel Messi, posed in front of his TV on the other side of the world, really appreciated his friend’s escapades.
By Tom Binet, at the Parc des Princes
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