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Neymar knuckles down as off-colour PSG show some grit at long last

13-Aug-2020 13:48:43 | The Guardian

PSG were not at their best, but they are finally into the Champions League semi-finals. And they did it as a collective

By Adam White for Get French Football News

Thomas Tuchel had a lot in common with his PSG team on Wednesday night at the Estádio da Luz. He was limping, unbalanced and, one would imagine, lacking pace. His foot was strapped in a weighty cast and he had to perch uneasily on a water cooler to protect the metatarsal he broke in a workout session last Thursday. Yet Tuchel still cut a typically frenzied figure on the touchline. And, after a long night in which PSG trailed Atalanta for 64 minutes and led for just four, he was able to celebrate taking the club to their first Champions League semi-final in 25 years – and their first in the Qatari era. His team’s performance was shaky at best, but they advanced to the last four having broken down some important barriers.

As always seems to be the case for PSG’s big European games, the build-up was dominated by talk of absent players. The state of Kylian Mbappé’s ankle confined him to the bench; Marco Verratti’s injury kept him out entirely; and Ángel Di María remained in the stands, suspended. Edinson Cavani and Thomas Meunier had both departed without replacements this summer. As an exasperated Tuchel pointed out earlier this week, such concerns are familiar ones for PSG in the Champions League. Neymar, for example, missed their last two Champions League exits through injury. But the club’s supposed matchwinner-in-chief was fit and ready this time.