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PARIS —Paris Saint-Germain’s UEFA Champions League round of 16 first leg underlined exactly how important Kylian Mbappe is to the French giants. All of the talk ahead of the game focused on his fitness and involvement, all eyes were on him as soon as the players were out, and many stayed on him during a poor first half from the hosts.
Mbappe, 24, was only fit enough to make the bench for the start of the clash with the Germans and yet the game played out essentially as a countdown to his return to action. Absent from the pregame warm-up, there was fear around Parc des Princes that PSG might have overstated his fitness in a bid to win some early mind games.
Les Parisiens’ opening 45 only served to strengthen the argument that Christophe Galtier’s men desperately needed to involve Mbappe as soon as possible. Bayern were comfortable and dominant without truly asserting their control on the encounter while PSG created nothing with their front two of Lionel Messi and Neymar.
Mbappe was out of the field at half-time limbering up and it was at that moment that the home crowd truly woke up after what had been quite a subdued home atmosphere. PSG started the second half better than the first and started to push forward and create which had been badly missing in the first 45.
However, arguably against the run of play, Kingsley Coman put Bayern ahead on 53 minutes just as the home supporters were lifting the team with Mbappe about to come on. The French superstar did duly take to the field and immediately injected a sense of urgency as Galtier also opted to add greater experience in midfield with Fabian Ruiz.
Youngster Warren Zaire Emery could feel aggrieved to be making way alongside the ineffectual Carlos Soler, but it was telling that PSG remained without a shot on target beyond 70 minutes. In fact, the Ligue 1 leaders’ best performers all night were veteran defender Sergio Ramos and midfield enforcer Danilo Pereira who thrived in the hosts’ dogfight environment.
When PSG did finally open Bayern up, both Mbappe and Neymar found January arrival Yann Sommer in inspired form to keep the visitors in front despite the former’s offside finish. It was a shame for Gianluigi Donnarumma that the Switzerland international was so sharp as the Italian shot stopper was largely excellent aside from Coman’s goal and kept Bayern at bay.
Mbappe had a second goal disallowed seven minutes from time when the brilliant Nuno Mendes tore into the visiting back line to tee the Frenchman up only for another offside call: “VAR is part of the new soccer so if it was offside, it was offside,” PSG’s No. 7 said of the decision post-game. “We must keep the positives and from what I saw, we can do it.”
“We need to keep the end in mind,” Mbappe added. “We were at a disadvantage and still managed to trouble them. We need to get all our players back healthy and go for the win to qualify. It was complicated an unpredictable coming back — I was not supposed to play. I wanted to be involved, though, to help my teammates however I could. We tried everything and worked night and day. I always want to play, so sometimes you have to be satisfied with what you are able to do. Of course, we have hope ahead of the second leg. We need our players to stay healthy above all. That means eating well and sleeping well… We have seen that when we have our full team, we can attack and play good soccer. They were not comfortable with us at the end. We will go there to win and to qualify.”
Ultimately, PSG woke up too late here and now have it all to do in Germany next month, but there was no doubt that the French champions were infinitely better for Mbappe being on the pitch. It was just unfortunate for Galtier and his superstar’s teammates that he was only fit enough for 30 minutes or so given the season-crushing potential of this result in the context of the tie overall after the Coupe de France exit in Marseille and a poor start to 2023 generally.
