Paris Saint-Germain Fall Flat Against Toulouse

Frustrating. Disappointing. Wasteful. Those are the three words that best sum up Paris Saint-Germain’s scoreless draw against Toulouse FC on Sunday at the Parc des Princes.

CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP/Getty Images

Just five days after defeating FC Barcelona 4-0 in the UEFA Champions League, the defending Ligue 1 champions returned to their domestic duties and laid an egg against a very organized Toulouse side. The result is a bitter pill to swallow for PSG supporters given AS Monaco’s 1-1 draw last Friday against SC Bastia. Les Parisiens could have moved within one point of the league leaders but instead, squandered their opportunity and remain three points back. After the match, Unai Emery discussed the difficult evening:

We missed a good opportunity tonight. The team deserved to win, but like it was against Lille, against a side compact and disciplined in defense, it’s not easy to find spaces in attack. We didn’t take the chance that came our way. We’re a little disappointed because we missed a chance to close the gap at the top. – Unai Emery, psg.fr

Emery made five changes to the starting lineup that defeated the Spanish champions but he still fielded a strong enough lineup to completely dominate Toulouse on the stat sheet. Paris finished the match with 77 percent possession, 14 shots (3 on target), 7 corner kicks, and a 90 percent pass success. Despite all that offensive dominance, PSG failed to break through Pascal Dupraz’s six-man (sometimes more) back line.

This was a unique performance for les Rouge et Bleu, though, as since the start of 2017 they’ve bagged 33 goals across all competitive competitions. With Edinson Cavani, Julian Draxler, and Lucas Moura leading the attack, many expected a comfortable win for PSG. Perhaps we underestimated the toll the Barca match took on the team as described by Adrien Rabiot after the match.

Tuesday took a lot out of us, physically and mentally. Toulouse came here to defend with 11 players and it was tough. – Adrien Rabiot, psg.fr

While some will have you believe that this was a “typical” lifeless PSG performance where they lack ambition and effort, I’m chalking this one up to them being unlucky. On two separate occasions, Toulouse defenders handled the ball in the box and at least one should have resulted in a penalty for Paris. Then, in the second half, Marquinhos found some space in Alban Lafont’s box and headed a blistering shot on goal. The header looked bound for the back of the net but the ball was blocked by none other than Presnel Kimpembe, who had yet another stellar match and can’t seem to stop defending…even if he’s on the opponents goal line.

If Paris Saint-Germain do ultimately lose the league title to Monaco critics will point to the four points Toulouse took from them this season as one of the reasons why. But we like to stay positive here at PSG Talk (as much as we can anyway) and there’s still 12 league matches to play. Anything can happen and a win next Sunday against rivals Olympique de Marseille at the Orange Vélodrome will erase this result from the player’s minds and help set up an exciting finish to the domestic season.

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Tags Julian Draxler Ligue 1 Lucas Moura Marquinhos Presnel Kimpembe Toulouse Unai Emery

3 Comments

  1. I feel in my gut we’ll advance further in the Champion’s League and lose Ligue 1. It seems whenever we have a chance to close the gap or go ahead we stumble. I would have liked to see a 4-2-3-1 attacking formation with HBA as the 10 with Pastore brought on as his relief in the second half, but credit to Toulouse, they did what they came to do. Put every man behind the ball and squeezed a result.

  2. PSG isn’t fun to watch this season and yes, it was a typical lifeless performance with lack of effort.
    Monaco will win the league and PSG will go out of the Champions League when they meet Real Madrid or Bayern.
    This will go down as a disappointing season with ugly, boring football(with few exceptions) and no major trophies won.

    1. I guess that depends on your definition of “fun.” I personally have enjoyed watching them grow this season. The best teams in the world would have struggled to break down a Toulouse side that had nearly every player behind the ball.

      Monaco only up three points with 12 league matches to play. Anything can happen. People said “they will be out of the Champions League” when they drew Barca so I’m not sure you can really bet on Bayern or Madrid taking them out.

      This will go down as a season in transition. With the new manager and players, it was always going to be tricky but as of today, they’ve positioned themselves well and with a bit of luck, they could win major trophies. Time will tell.

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