PSG inspired the famous X Opta Jean account this Wednesday evening, during its unexpected defeat at Dortmund (1-0) in the semi-final first leg of the Champions League. First there was the precocity of Warren Zaire-Emery, second youngest player in history (at 18 years and 54 days) to start in the last four of the C1, behind Julian Draxler but ahead of Kylian Mbappé ( 3rd). This poor performance in Germany is also the first Parisian defeat of the season, in all competitions, without a single goal scored.
More unusual, Opta Jean tells us that Luis Enrique’s players have touched ten times the opposing amounts in the Champions League this season (in 11 matches). This is the highest total in 2023-2024, but also a “performance” that only FC Barcelona (11 posts in 2011-2012) has exceeded over the last 20 years.
“The locker room is a little affected”
The Spanish coach of PSG also admitted, Wednesday at the microphone of Canal +, that this persistent bad luck was not without consequences: “The locker room is a little affected this evening because we had an action with the posts “. And what action! We are playing the 51st minute of play and Paris begins to seriously push in front of the Borussia goal to get back into the score. Achraf Hakimi shifts his friend Kylian Mbappé, launched in his favorite position, shifted to the left of the German penalty area. The captain of the Blues fixes Marcel Sabitzer and sends a wonderful curling strike. Bim, full left post from Gregor Kobel.
The ball immediately returns to “Kyky”, then to Bradley Barcola, who slides back to Achraf Hakimi. And this time, the Moroccan full-back’s attempt at ground level found the right post of the Borussia goalkeeper, once again badly beaten at the time. Yes yes, two posts in eight seconds as the ultimate illustration of a difficult evening, like the probable serious injury to Lucas Hernandez’s left knee… on the only goal of the match scored by Niclas Füllkrug (1-0, 36th ). Dear Parisian supporters, should we tell you that this cursed Barça of 2011-2012 had failed in the semi-finals of the C1 against the famous Chelsea of Di Matteo (0-1, 2-2)?