Messi & Co. Silenced As PSG Suffer Shock Loss
04 October, 2021
Paris Saint-Germain suffered their defeat of the Ligue 1 season after going down 2-0 to Rennnes on Sunday afternoon.
Ligue 1
Result: Rennes 2-0 Paris Saint-Germain
Date: 03 October 2021
Venue: Roazhon Park
PSG manager Mauricio Pochettino made only one change for the clash, as Angel Di Maria returned to form a front three with Lionel Messi and Neymar, behind lone-striker Kylian Mbappe.
The Parisians were on the front foot in the early stages but they nearly went behind in the 21st minute after Kamaldeen Sulemana unleashed a superb strike from the edge of the box that missed the top corner by a whisker.
Mbappe should have given PSG the lead four minutes later after a through ball by Messi sent him clear on goal inside the box but he chipped his shot over the bar.
Messi came very close to breaking the deadlock for Pochettino's charges on the half-hour mark with a cracking free-kick from 25-yards out that came off the crossbar.
The intensity of PSG's attack was slowing down in the closing phase and they were punished on a counter-attack on the stroke of half-time after Gaetan Laborde powered home Sulemana's cross with a header at the back post.
The visitors were caught cold coming from the half-time break, as Flavien Tait doubled Rennes' lead within seconds from the restart with a close range strike from Laborde's cross, who beat his marker on the byline.
The game was opening up after that, with the home side threatening to get the third goal and Mbappe thought he had pulled a goal back in the 68th minute after exchanging passes with Di Maria to go clear and planted his strike into the bottom corner but the goal was disallowed for offside by the Video Assistant Referee.
Pochettino made a triple substitution in the last quarter of an hour to rescue the game, as Ander Herrera replaced Idrissa Gueye, Georginio Wijnaldum came on for Marco Verratti and Mauro Icardi replaced Neymar.
PSG had a let off eight minutes before time after the referee initially awarded Rennes a penalty after Laborde was brought down inside the box by Achraf Hakimi with a high boot but after reviewing the incident on the VAR monitor, the referee reversed his decision.
Rennes were defending in numbers in the closing phase and the Parisians could not crack the code and they suffered their first loss, although they remained six points clear at the top of the log.
Source: www.soccerladuma.co.za