BRUSSELS (EFE) – In the long-awaited opening of the offensive trident formed by the Argentine Lionel Messi, the Brazilian Neymar and the French Kylian Mbappé, the Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) suffered to obtain a tie in the his visit to Bruges (1-1) against a Belgian team that nullified the talent of the French club with intensity and boldness.
In Messi’s debut in the Champions League with PSG, after 120 goals in 149 matches in the competition with FC Barcelona, the unexpected star of the match was the Belgian Hans Vanaken, author of the goal of the ‘tie for his and leader of the flamenco team in midfield.
In the PSG, with the main page of its management in the box, the Belgian “candy” was interrupted, and its explosive front barely disturbed the local goal in a match that the French faced without the midfielder Italian Marco Verratti, with discomfort in his left knee, nor the Spanish defender Sergio Ramos, who is recovering from an injury to the sole of his left thigh.
Bruges, the lone leader in the Belgian league, presented themselves to the almighty Paris Saint-Germain as a humble team with nothing to lose and much to gain in the mourning, according to coach Philippe Clement.
And in front of some 28,000 fans gathered at the Jan Breydel Stadium, the Belgians drew oil from the talent field of the fledgling Qatar team in the French league, eclipsing their stars.
The match started as expected, with a festive atmosphere in a stands full after a year and a half of restrictions due to the pandemic, Bruges overturned and PSG holding the push of the locals, extra-motivated in front of their great gala match and waiting their opportunity, which would eventually come.
He did so after a quarter of an hour of play thanks to Ander Herrera, who received a low cross from Mbappé at the penalty spot and shot Mignolet’s net.
And then the match started to get out of the script, because you Belgians didn’t cringe, they kept circling the French area and found their reward.
Its captain, the Belgian international Hans Vanaken, cloned the goal that minutes before had marked the PSG, although this time by the left, to pass of Eduard Sobol and sifting the network of Keylor Navas, titling in spite of the club de Paris has recruited this summer the goalkeeper of the Italian team, Gianluigi Donnarumma.
It was the 27th minute and the match caught fire. PSG put in another march and harassed the counter-attack on Bruges, who held on and retaliated.
Navas had to fight hard, clearing first a free-kick from Vanaken and then a shot on a counter from De Ketelaere to keep Bruges from taking the lead at half-time.
Messi, with the second kit of the PSG, white, and the number 30 on his back, barely showed signs of life, beyond an elegant pass to Mbappé in the area that the Frenchman sent to the stands .
Bruges went to the locker room to applause from their audience. And things turned out for him in the second half.
The long-awaited trident Messi-Neymar-Mbappé was disbanded when the French striker, who had been treated for a leg injury at the end of the first half, broke down and called for a change in the 50th minute, yielding the his place in the Argentine Mauro Icardi.
Prior to Mpabbé’s retirement, Pochettino had replaced Dutch midfielder Giorginio Winjaldum with German Julian Draxler and Argentine Leandro Parets, with yellow, with Portuguese Danilo Pereira. But the changes did not work.
Philippe Clement’s Bruixes, without touching his eleven, still had less possession but more danger, while Messi and Neymar still did not appear. The duo first worked in the 70th minute, when the Argentine served the Brazilian who saved Mignolet under sticks.
While the Witches and enjoyed their good time and Noa Lang tried with danger of Chilean, the Argentine (who took a yellow card in a foul without malice) looked for area without fortune like the rest of the PSG, which pressed but he did not suffocate the Witches in the final stretch and failed to take more than one point against a small starless club.