At the Parc des Princes,
An evening upside down, as only PSG has the art to offer. Certainly, and it must be said right away, the very worrying state of health of goalkeeper Sergio Rico, victim of a serious accident last weekend in Spain, obviously weighed. But it is not enough to explain everything that was this last meeting of a season which will remain disappointing despite an 11th league title.
The support of the club and the public for his goalkeeper has transpired from everywhere, with the players’ shirts flocked to his shirt, the huge tifo of the Ultras or the minute of applause in the 16th, constantly leaving everyone in a kind of strange in-between, between celebration and restraint. The priority was not football, as Kylian Mbappé recalled at the end of the meeting at the microphone of Canal: “The most important thing was the tribute to Sergio. On the field, we were already champions. We would have lost 22-0, it would have changed nothing for us, launched the evening captain. We really had to pay tribute to Sergio. I think we are all affected, it is an extremely serious situation. It’s been bothering us all week. »
This was seen on the pitch, where Paris squandered a two-goal lead by stopping defending after 25 minutes of play. If the defeat is excusable, it is also and above all the symbol of this ultimately forgettable season, punctuated by seven defeat in the league and an elimination from the knockout stages of the Champions League, which ended up irritating the supporters as to the way in which the project is carried out. Their anger methodically focused on two men, Lionel Messi and Christophe Galtier.
The first, whose departure was recorded in the afternoon, will have had a sad last. Booed at the composition of the teams, at the call of the players to come and lift the trophy and when he received the distinction of best passer in the championship, he quickly spun to the locker room once the group photo was evacuated. There is something embarrassing in seeing one of the best players in history dressed like this, even if he has only rarely lived up to his talent during these two seasons in the Parisian jersey. You should have seen the faces of the Spanish colleagues sitting next to us in the press gallery, who are still wondering what the idol of Barça had come to do in this galley.
Galtier was also jeered at every opportunity, especially when going up on the stage. “We are having a very average second half of the season with seven defeats, I understand that there is disappointment, a discrepancy with the joy of this 11th title. We hung on until the end. When there is love, there can be anger too, ”he commented a few minutes later at a press conference. Announced therefore certain by The Team this Saturday, which sporting director Luis Campos denied, the former Nice coach assured that he remained motivated to honor his second year of contract. “We have to meet with my management at the beginning of next week to take stock. We will then see what decisions she will make, ”he said. It is still difficult to see by what miracle he could stay.
Gap
With all that, the party could only be flawed. To make matters worse, there has been a certain dichotomy between the messages broadcast by the club in recent days and then by the announcer before the match, announcing a celebration that was all in measure given the context, and the grandiose sound and light show that made shake the Park and certainly woke up all the little crown a few minutes after the final whistle. Something as big as two July 14ths, with Rihanna all the way, slightly out of step with the enthusiasm shown by the Parisians.
To end this decidedly baroque evening, the stands of the Park did not see the color of the players’ lap of honor announced with great fanfare after the presentation of the trophy. Their celebration was limited to the field, with women and children descending on the lawn for a few photos and hugs, the supporters waiting for someone to deign to approach to say hello. We will still salute the effort of Nuno Mendes, who came to lift Hexagoal at the foot of the Auteuil tribune.
It won’t console the fans, but we weren’t better off on our end. Only Gigio Donnarumma went through the mixed zone to quickly give us his impressions after this title. “It was a special evening. Afterwards, it’s still a good season, we won the title, even if everyone says it’s easy, said the Italian goalkeeper. We didn’t pay too much attention to the whistles, but the reactions of the fans, I understand, we lost too many games, that shouldn’t happen. This year we lacked a bit of mentality. “At the end of this season, the site is surely larger than ever for the leaders of PSG.