Mbappe is back - but Messi remains the GOAT! PSG winners & losers as thrilling win over Lille overshadows Neymar injury woes
Posted Monday, February 20, 2023 by Goal.com
The seven-time Ballon d'Or winner curled in a stoppage-time free-kick to rescue a come-from-behind 4-3 win for the French champions
Paris Saint-Germain manager Christophe Galtier might just have had his job saved. With his side 3-2 down against Lille entering the final couple of minutes having taken a 2-0 lead, the writing was on the wall for a coach who had previously overseen three straight defeats.
Not every coach has players like Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi to call upon, though.
Mbappe stepped up first, prodding home Juan Bernat's pull-back to level the scores, before Messi curled home a superb low free-kick in the fifth minute of stoppage-time to send the home crowd into raptures.
It had looked pretty routine for PSG early on. Mbappe and Neymar both scored within the first 17 minutes, but Lille stuck around, and Bafode Diakite eventually benefitted, pulling one back after a well-worked corner routine.
PSG endured a miserable start to the second half, as first Neymar badly rolled an already-injured ankle and had to be stretchered off, before Lille equalised from the penalty spot through Jonathan David.
The visitors then took the lead as Jonathan Bamba fired home a fierce shot to cap a fine counter-attack, but they were unable to hold on in the face of two of the game's true superstars.
WINNER: Kylian Mbappe
PSG, unsurprisingly, looked far more dangerous when Mbappe was on the pitch in their 1-0 loss against Bayern Munich, and having made that return from injury, he was back in the line up on Sunday.
What an impact he made, too. Mbappe bagged the opener with a sublime piece of skill and comfortable finish, and stretched the Lille defence throughout.
He then found the vital equaliser in the final minutes, too, bursting into the box and poking Bernat's cut-back into the bottom corner.
Mbappe wasn't a one man show - Messi made sure of that - but he was every bit the star performer for PSG here.
LOSER: Neymar
Well, that looked like it hurt!
Neymar has been trying to play on the same ankle he sprained at the World Cup for nearly six weeks. It was, perhaps, always bound to catch up with him.
And so it did on Sunday, as he badly twisted his ankle early in the second half. He was unable to walk off himself, and had to be stretchered from the field.
PSG play Bayern Munich in the Champions League in 17 days, and Neymar now appears to be a serious doubt for that fixture.
WINNER: Lionel Messi
Messi was anonymous for 90 minutes here. The Argentine hardly touched the ball. And aside from a covert dummy in the build up to PSG's second goal, his impact on the game had been minimal.
But that's kind of how Messi is these days. The World Cup winner has become a 'moments' player; a footballer who can simply pick his spots to show up at this point.
And on Sunday he did just that, scoring a wonderful free-kick deep into stoppage time to seal a dramatic late win for a PSG side that badly needed it.
Mbappe may have been the most consistent contributor on the day and across the season for PSG, but Messi is still the best to ever do it, and he's not tired of showing it yet.
LOSER: Nuno Mendes
Can he ever catch a break?
Nuno Mendes isn't the finished article at full-back, but he's a serious talent, and has shown immense potential in his first 18 months in Paris.
Injury struggles have stunted his development this season, though, and they popped up again on Sunday.
Mendes exited the game in the first half with a foot injury, another blemish on what has become a difficult campaign for the Portugal international.
PSG will hope it's not too serious; his pace will be vital against Bayern's speedy wingers in two-and-a-half weeks' time.
WINNER(s): Christophe Galtier and Luis Campos
Jobs saved... for now.
It was all reaching the point of crisis towards the end of Sunday's game. Director of football Campos, usually an onlooker from the Parc des Princes rafters, had made his way down to the bench, and was screaming at the team from Galtier's technical area. Both he and the team's manager looked terrified of the horror unfolding in front of them.
And for good reason. This is the side that Campos assembled and Galtier moulded. It is supposed to be PSG at their most balanced, a fusion of star power and complementary pieces.
As three losses in four games have showed, it's not always that simple. But, after Sunday, they'll live to see another game.
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