Madrid (AFP) – Paris Saint-Germain know better than most what a comeback means in the Champions League and while their two-goal retrieval on Tuesday offered a dramatic late twist, there was no doubting the biggest recovery of the night.
Real Madrid had not only lost 3-0 in the opening fixture at the Parc des Princes in September, they were outplayed, the verdict so damning that it put Zinedine Zidane’s future as coach in doubt.
Ten weeks later, his team were transformed at the Santiago Bernabeu, where they bullied PSG, hogged possession and peppered the goal of Keylor Navas, who was returning to the club where he spent five successful years.
That Madrid conceded twice in two mad minutes meant it amounted only to a 2-2 draw but the overwhelming sense is that this is a side finally playing with verve again. It feels like Zidane’s Madrid are back.
“It was a great performance,” said Zidane. “The players are not happy with the result but you have to be happy with what we have done for 80 minutes. I’d take that performance all day long.”
“We were lucky,” admitted PSG coach Thomas Tuchel. “But that’s not a crime.”
Their late smash and grab was instigated by the electric Kylian Mbappe and completed by Pablo Sarabia. Sarabia was coming back too, to Real Madrid, where he came through the ranks but never played in the first team.
If the French resurgence happened in a flash, Madrid’s has been of an altogether different kind — long, frustrating and for extended periods not at all obvious where it might end up.
Zidane’s own comeback in February was hailed as the start of a “glorious new era” by club president Florentino Perez but questions about why he returned soon turned to dejection around the team, as three miserable months offered little hope of a revival.
The summer was supposed to bring revolution but that proved disappointing too and when this season began badly, it looked as if Jose Mourinho might make the most controversial comeback of all.
Instead, Madrid regrouped, spurred on perhaps by the struggles of Barcelona and Atletico Madrid, and driven on by the re-emergence of key players.
– ‘Spectacular’ Hazard –
Eden Hazard came back from injury and while the Belgian needed time, he has been almost back to his riveting best, all the more a shame that a twisted ankle in the second half threatens now to check his momentum.
from World Soccer Talk https://ift.tt/2rwHCWO
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