Paris Saint-Germain are Paris Saint-Germain, which is a statement of the bleeding obvious that, if you’ve watched any football at all at any point in the last decade, also contains several layers of implication.
First up, they’ll have a squad so packed with glitzy superstars funded by their limitless oil wealth that it’s almost laughable. Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi up front together for their Champions League opener against Juventus at the Parc des Princes? Err, check.
Second, they’re going to win Ligue 1, aren’t they? Well, they’re level on points with Marseille after six games, but the fact they’ve scored 24 and conceded four so far tells us that, yeah, they’ll probably seal another French crown at a canter.
Thirdly, and finally, they’ll implode in highly amusing fashion as soon as the knockout stages of the Champions League roll around despite their array of talent, surely? Well, try not to laugh, but… maybe not.
Against Juve in beau Paris on Tuesday night, there were two moments of Neymar-to-Messi, backheel-flick joy that subtly but assuredly raised a hand to the rest of Europe and said, ‘You might think we’re funny, but we might finally be ready to actually do this shit.’
Neither of the backheels resulted in a goal – and it’s natural that the outrageous Neymar pass to Mbappe that did result in PSG opening the scoring should get all the attention. But both were clear signs that this season’s PSG manager Christophe Galtier is finally getting his trio of football divas to sing in harmony.
The first came not long after that first PSG goal. Messi dropped deep to pick up the ball, as is his wont. As he did, Neymar drifted into that gap on the edge of the penalty area where defenders and midfielders point to each other as the responsible party for doing the closing down.
With that move, the Brazilian managed to draw four players towards him, but none quite close enough to nick it off his toe. Messi burst into the space created and Neymar played his first deliciously-weighted heel pass of the night.
OK, Messi ended up running into a bit of a cul-de-sac after he’d got the return ball. But just look at how Mbappe immediately gets on his bike as he sees Neymar create havoc and disorder with two touches and a healthy dose of imagination.
Mbappe knows that there will be more like this later in the game – and probably all season, too. He knows that if Messi and Neymar are linking up like this, all he needs to do…
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