Paris Saint-Germain showed its best face in the return of Lionel Messi, admitted in the second half, to thrashing Reims 4-0 in the Parc des Princes. The return of the Argentine also brought good luck to Sergio Ramos, who scored his first goal with the Parisian jersey.
PSG
REI
PSG
Navas; Kehrer, Marquinhos, Ramos, Mendes; Paredes, Verratti (Herrera, 76′), Danilo; Di María (Messi, 63′), Icardi, Mbappé (Draxler, 76′).
Rheims
Rajkovic; Foket (Cassama, 46′), Gravillon, Faes, Abdelhamid, Locko; Busi, Matusiwa (Lopy, 46′) (Flips, 81′), Cdonde (Donis, 64′), Mbuku (Adeline, 58′); Ekitike.
goals
1-0 M. 44 Verratti. 2-0 M. 62 Ramos. 3-0 M. 67 Verratti. 4-0 M. 75 Danilo.
Referee
Eric Wattellier. TA: Lopy (56′).
Incidents
Princes Park. Day 22. 5,000 spectators.
With Lionel waiting on the bench, PSG started pretty thick in the first half. He had some approach, the clearest from Mbappé, but he could not properly intimidate Rajkovic. Until, at 44′, Verratti opened the can inside the area hunting a rebound that he sent to save.
For the second part, Mauricio Pochettino’s team found all the avenues for their mighty attack. The first, the aerial game. took advantage of it Sergio Ramos winning in a corner and propitiating the rebound of Rajkovic who hunted with the toe to extend the advantage. He did not score since his goal against Atalanta for the Champions League with Madrid in March 2021.
The goal was the curtain for the return of Messi. The Argentine premiered his 2022 finally after so many comings and goings with covid. And he was the protagonist as soon as he entered: he picked up a short corner to pass the ball to Verratti. The Italian fired and, with a detour in Faes, managed to set goalscoring numbers in the French capital.
Then the other off-series PSG appeared: Kylian Mbappe. A gallop from the French winger down the left wing led to his shipment to the edge of the area, where Danilo arrived, attacking with his entire body to subtly define with the interior. Again Faes had the misfortune to deflect the ball to his goalkeeper and leave it in their networks, signing the final 4-0.