Neymar spent most of the first nine minutes of a crucial Champions League second leg against Borussia Dortmund on the floor. In a way, it was the best evidence of how much the match meant to him.
Neymar may or may not stay with PSG next season. In the meantime, it’s clear he is doing everything in his power to win the Champions League for his wealthy Qatari benefactors.
After having its match on Saturday postponed due to the coronavirus, PSG will now play its Champions League Round of 16 second leg against Borussia Dortmund behind closed doors at the Parc des Princes.
With the virus rapidly spreading through France, the French Police announced Monday that Wednesday’s Champions League match will take place with no fans present. The police and PSG’s Twitter accounts broke the news to fans and will now work out terms and conditions for refunds.
With a hat trick in PSG’s 5-1 Coupe de France semifinal victory over Lyon, Kylian Mbappé took his total to 30 goals in 32 appearances across all competitions this season (to go with 17 assists).
Following Martin Terrier’s early opener for Lyon, Mbappé equalized in the 14th after ensuring that Layvin Kurzawa’s header found the back of the net from close range. Neymar then gave PSG the lead in the 64th minute from the penalty spot.
With Neymar out suspended, Kylian Mbappé had two goals and an assist in Paris Saint-Germain’s 4-0 thrashing of Dijon on Saturday. But it’ll be the back-to-back Mbappé nutmegs that torment the nightmares of Dijon defenders for years to come.
Neymar sat out the match after picking up two yellow cards in the Feb. 23 match with Girondins de Bourdeaux. Marco Verratti was also out suspended while Thiago Silva, Ander Herrera, Colin Dagba and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting were all injured.
After failing to come off the bench in PSG’s 2-1 Champions League defeat to Borussia Dortmund, Edinson Cavani was handed a start against Bordeaux in Ligue 1 action Sunday and scored his landmark 200th goal for the club.
Cavani was already PSG’s all-time leading scorer (Zlatan Ibrahimović is second with 156), but it’s a special milestone for the 33-year-old as his seventh season in Paris figures to be his last.
Giovanni Reyna made quite the first impression in his Champions League debut.
The American teenager supplied the game-winning assist as Borussia Dortmund beat Paris Saint-Germain 2-1 in the first leg of their UCL round-of-16 match on Tuesday at the Westfalenstadion.
The second leg is scheduled for March 11 in Paris, with the German side holding a slight edge thanks to Lucien Favre’s introduction of Gio, the son of former USMNT captain Claudio Reyna.
Paris Saint-Germain coach Thomas Tuchel thought he could rest his stars against the 19th-place team in Ligue 1 ahead of the start of the Champions League knockout rounds on Tuesday. He was wrong.
SC Amiens scored the game’s first three goals only to see PSG come back to take the lead before a late equalizer gave the home side an unlikely 4-4 draw Saturday at Stade de la Licorne.
For the second time this season, PSG manager Thomas Tuchel had to deal with drama after a Kylian Mbappé substitution — this time during his team’s 5-0 victory against Montpellier on Saturday.
Sometimes you just really don’t want to be substituted out of a match. The level of soccer doesn’t matter — whether it’s youth, college or professional — but the best thing to do is wish your oncoming teammate success and then get cozy on the bench. But Mbappé seems to have his own style.
PSG defeated Lille 2-0 on Sunday to go 10 points clear of Marseille at the top of the Ligue 1 table. Both of the goals were scored by Neymar — the first a sensational effort from the top of the box and the second from the penalty spot — who celebrated his brace by paying tribute to Kobe Bryant. Bryant, along with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, were involved in a helicopter crash that claimed the lives of everyone on board.
For keen followers of the world’s game, Feb. 5 is something of a holiday. A startling number of legendary players were born on that day, from Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez to Gheorghe Hagi and the inimitable Neymar.
But this year, Feb. 5 will come with a bit less fanfare, a bit less pomp and revelry.
This year, Neymar won’t be having an exorbitantly extravagant party to celebrate his 28th birthday.