Paris Saint-Germain suffered a painful defeat in Ligue 1 on Sunday evening. The team of trainer Mauricio Pochettino was defeated with 1-2 against FC Nantes, which was certainly nothing less than the opponent at the Parc des Princes in the second half. In France it is mainly about the substitution of Ángel Di María the 62nd minute.
Four minutes earlier, Pochettino turned to the stands, where technical director Leonardo told something. The trainer then went for a few seconds to the catacombs, where Leonardo was presumably also disappeared from the stands. Not much later, Di María was replaced and left the stadium. According to French media because his family had been the victim of a burglary at home.
The home team took the initiative in the game from the first whistle, but forgot to reward itself for a longer period of time. For example, goalkeeper Alban Lafont saved an effort from Ángel Di Maria and Marquinhos was unfortunate with a header just went over. Unlike his colleagues, Julian Draxler had his sights on sharp. The midfielder got the leather on the edge of the box in front of his feet, and then shot in diagonally: 1-0. Nantes also got an excellent opportunity before the break through Ludovic Blas, but goalkeeper Keylor Navas tapped the attacker’s shot from the bottom left corner.
In the second company, the game turned in a surprising way, as Nantes took full advantage of the lack of creativity at PSG. A striking moment occurred in the 58th minute, when technical director Leonardo started a conversation from the stands with Pochettino, who turned his back to the field. A minute after the incident, Nantes scored the equalizer via Randal Kolo, who got the ball pushed into the feet by Mbappé and then finished cool-blooded: 1-1. After the hit, Pochettino even left the field, reportedly to enter into the locker room conversation with Leonardo. Moments later, Leandro Paredes was brought in for Di María, who left the stadium very quickly. The conversations between Leonardo and the trainer were probably related to the Argentinian’s substitution.
Twenty minutes before the final whistle, Nantes even took the lead, when Moses Simon fired in on a pass from the maker of the first goal, Kolo: 1-2. Although the home team tried to force a breakthrough, the equalizer was no longer found. It was the second home loss in a row in the competition for PSG, which has not lost twice consecutively at home since November 2012. Due to the defeat, PSG fails to crown itself the absolute winner of the French football weekend, as AS Monaco and OSC Lille balanced each other earlier in the day (0-0) and Olympique Lyon lost points against Stade de Rennes on Friday (1-1 ). Lille still leads the ranking with 63 points; PSG are following in the wake with 60 points, followed by Lyon, which collected the same number of points but has a disadvantageous goal difference, and Monaco (56).
AS Monaco – Lille OSC 0-0
The visitors scored the first chance of the match via Timothy Weah, who was given room to shoot in a favorable position but ran into goalkeeper Benjamin Lecomte. Then Monaco came close to the opening goal, when Wissam Ben Yedder thought he would score; the striker, however, hit goal from an offside position, leaving the 0-0 score on the scoreboard. In the remainder of the first half, the game swung up and down, but both teams lacked fortune and accuracy in the completion. The second company was significantly less attractive than the first half, and certainly Lille, which kicked off with Sven Botman in the starting line-up, had little to crumble after the break. Deep in injury time, the Monegasken got an excellent chance to grab the win through Stevan Jovetic, but goalkeeper Mike Maignan was on the right track and dived the shot from the bottom left corner.