At the Parc des Princes,
It was hot in more ways than one on Wednesday evening at the Parc des Princes. In the stands, to begin with, with an attendance record beaten during this Champions League quarter-final second leg between the women of PSG and those of Bayern. Indeed, while the Parisian public, ultras in the lead, decided to put their love affair with the team of Mauricio Pochettino on hold, they had on the contrary chosen to declare their love for the daughters of Didier Ollé-Nicolle. Note, we say that but it is not exceptional in itself as the ultras of the CUP have forged a special relationship with Parisian women over the past fifteen years.
Except that usually it doesn’t happen at the Parc, or very little, but in the intimacy of the Camps des loges, which doesn’t quite have the same face, you’ll admit. So Wednesday, Porte d’Auteuil, they came en masse. More than 25,000 had made the trip to carry their players to the last four of the Champions League.
A beautiful communion with the Park
Carried by a Virage Auteuil which has had very little opportunity to get its belly tickled this season – the fault of a men’s team as soporific as possible – the stadium vibrated from start to finish of the evening. Until the final fireworks with this equalizing (and liberating) goal by Ramona Bachnmann in extra time (2-2, 112th minute). At the final whistle, the players did not need to be asked to go celebrate as it should at the foot of the bend, under the cries “Thank you girls, thank you girls, thank you!” of the ultras.
It was as much cries of joy as of relief. Because it’s nothing to say that the Parisiennes put the thrilling supporters at 10,000 on Wednesday. And this despite a 2-1 victory in the first leg and a magnificent opener from Sandy Baltimore in the first quarter of an hour. But PSG’s DNA is such that there is NEVER an easy match for this team. Girls or boys, there is no question, everyone is housed in the same boat.
Paris plays at being scared
However, facing Bavarians decimated by seven cases of Covid, three injured and one suspended – on the bench, four players and two goalkeepers in all and for all! True story – the Reds and Blues freaked out like hell. First by conceding the equalizer one minute and a half (true story bis) after the wonder of Baltimore, then by conceding the 2-1 goal after returning from the locker room. The Parisian fans will thank them all the same for having saved them a more suffocating peno session you die and for offering them a European future at the end of the season.
Finally, the atmosphere, the qualification and the heart put by the Parisiennes almost made us forget the internal bickering born of the Hamraoui-Diallo affair. If the midfielder, taken in dislike by the members of the CUP and ostracized by part of the locker room (in particular the Katoto-Diani-Diallo trio), still came out under the whistles of the Auteuil bend, on the ground nothing left to think that the Parisiennes were divided. In the fight for the title with Lyon in the league, qualified for the final of the Coupe de France and therefore in the last four of the C1, PSG visibly manages to do the job despite the mess behind the scenes. Hope it lasts.