The unbeaten home record continues for Paris Saint Germain. The Ligue 1 champions have played 31 games without a defeat at home (last defeat from Lille in 2021 when Galiter was their coach) and tonight they continued that streak. But not with a win. The mid-table Reims, led by the 30 years-old British Will Still, who earned his trade by playing a popular video game Football Manager (!) also continued their 13 games unbeaten streak, earning a dramatic equalizer in the 96th minute of the match: PSG – Reims 1-1.1 – Paris have attempted only one shot against Reims in the first half, their lowest tally before half-time in Ligue 1 since 6 April 2018 at St Etienne (also 1). Asleep. #PSGSDR pic.twitter.com/6tPTDay2CZ— OptaJean (@OptaJean) January 29, 2023 It was an interesting and dynamic game in which we saw two legal goals, two disallowed ones, one dissalowed penalty and a red card. And pretty mediocre PSG display. This was the first match where Messi-Neymar-Mbappe trio (MNM) played together after the World Cup, but they didn’t show much. Mbappe missed two good chances, Messi missed a sitter and Neymar scored a goal after one of Reims’ rare defensive errors. But th guests never gave up, and it finally repaid in injury time. Marco Verratti will be sorry for his late tackle in the 60th minute, for which VAR gave him a red card.The first half was just awful. PSG didn’t know what hit them, as Reims commanded the tempo (but not the possesion) and created some good chances, so instead of MNM, the key player for the home team in the first 45 minutes was Donnarumma. The Italian keeper made some poor distribution choices but also saved a good ball from Munetsi in the 17th minute. The Parisians finished the first half with 1 shot overall, and 0 on target.The second half didn’t lack any excitement, on the contrary. In the 51st minute, Reims made their first bad defensive decision and Neymar used it to score the first goal of the match. Minutes later a penalty for Reims. And then VAR changed two referee’s decisions. The penalty was overturned first, since Reims forward was in offside position. And then VAR overturned Marco Verratti’s foul from yellow to red. Even without one player, PSG finished the game with ease. In fact, they played even better. Keeper Diouf saved a great shot from Mbappe before Hakimi’s goal for nullified due to offside. Ramos had a powerful header but Agbadou managed to hits his own crossbar and the score remained the same. And just as everybody was waiting for the final whistle, Balogun got behind the PSG defense and behind Donnarumma as well, for the equalizer and shock in Paris.
