There is the idea of a construction, in patience and a form of elegance, by projecting oneself onto the finished product or what will come close to it when Luis Enrique is fully satisfied with its implementation. This house of cards, because it is a meticulous and fragile piece of work, is not put together without faults, such as this inability for a long time to create danger, find the frame or call on goalkeeper Gregor Kobel, little put to task. contribution.
The problem remains the same since the start of the season with only three scorers in six matches, only two of which were valid. As luck would have it, Kylian Mbappé and Achraf Hakimi, it is them who we are talking about, scored the two goals, the first on a penalty (one for the price of two hands in the game), the second after a number as a magician in the area with his assistant, Vitinha, at the wand.
In six matches, if everything was already perfect, it would no longer be football but magic, precisely. And this game remains a school of patience, of retouching, of the subtlety of creativity, an evening when no one wondered where Marco Verratti had gone. Luis Enrique’s mechanic is progressing in any case, and this is the main and best news for PSG, a week where he can also beat the Marseille rival, in complete discomfiture as it all begins. Football is a school of patience and raw nerves. Those who lose them the fastest end up losing altogether.
Against this initially solid Dortmund, with Marius Wolf, the right midfielder, integrated into a five-man defense to surround Kylian Mbappé, then forced to come out after the 2018 world champion’s penalty, Paris especially deployed with its new strength, its midfield bringing together all the qualities, from the aggressiveness of Manuel Ugarte to the combativeness of Warren Zaire-Emery through the newfound volume of Vitinha, increasingly interesting with the ball.
We must still stop for two seconds on this fantastic anomaly which consists of seeing one of the outsiders of the Champions League evolve with a 17-year-old kid who is an indisputable holder and therefore efficient on the field while another prodigy, Lamine Yamal at Barcelona now plays much less. Designated captain of the Espoirs, he goes through this breakthrough in the setting as if everything were normal, which makes the phenomenon even more astonishing. He will end up finding himself at Euro 2024 with the Blues and it will always be just as ordinary for him.
When will a goal be for Dembélé?
The architecture that Luis Enrique gives to his team also includes some winning discoveries for the moment, like this play more inside of Achraf Hakimi, as if he was no longer really on the side and not yet attacking, which frees the lane for Ousmane Dembélé, formidable in dribbling, ordinary in efficiency. Or even this increased participation of Gianluigi Donnarumma in the footwork even if the Italian sends shivers of cold sweat to the supporters. Faced with more playful Germans when they were dominated in the second half, everyone showed real resilience even if the question remains eternal: with stronger attackers, would Paris have managed to defend as well?
Despite the success and the ideal start in the competition at a time when Milan and Newcastle offered a sad 0-0 at the opening of the group, questions remain and make this construction even more exciting, as if the next episode was going to allow you to know more. For now, that’s really it: yes, looking forward to the sequel.
The match sheet
PSG-Dortmund 2-0 (0-0)
Referee: J. Gil Manzano (Esp).
Goals: PSG: Mbappé (49th sp), Hakimi (58th).
Warnings. Dortmund: Schlotterbeck (66th), Can (67th), Ryerson (90th + 5).
PSG: Donnarumma – Hakimi, Marquinhos (cap), Skriniar, L. Hernandez (Danilo 88th) – Zaire Emery, Ugarte, Vitinha (Lee 80th) – O. Dembele, Kolo Muani (Ramos 80th), Mbappe. Coach : Luis Enrique.
Dortmund: Kobel – Suele, Hummels, Schlotterbeck, Ryerson, Wolf (Bensebaini, 78th), Brandt (Reus 62th) – Can (cap.) (Bynoe-Gittens 76th), Sabitzer (Nmecha 14th), Malen (Fullkrug 62th) – Adeyemi . Coach: Edin Terzic.
