PSG 4-3 Lille: Was winning this game really worth it?

PSG, from heroes to zeroes in a span of 45 minutes...

Neymar had already left the pitch with an injured ankle (he's expected to miss no less than two or three weeks, including the Classique next Sunday and the second leg at Bayern Munich), Luis Campos was putting on a show on the sidelines, and nobody on the pitch dressed in a PSG kit seemed capable of stringing five passes together.

To be fair, you could see this coming from the moment Neymar scored the second goal for Paris only for his team to see their lead cut in half a few minutes later. It was the same old story that had repeated itself for times on end this season: PSG get the lead, go to sleep, let it shrink, and end up suffering mightily to snatch three points, or any at all.

For all of the brute force and sheer will of Kylian Mbappe (peep the first goal), there are the disgustingly lackluster efforts of Leo Messi (suffer-watch him from the fifth to the 94th minute). As much as Neymar does, you're still left with just one forward applying some flashing pressure at times, another one drifting to the left but pretty much isolated, and then... Then, there is Messi.

Not only is extending Messi a conundrum worth questioning, it's one which already has, or at least, should have a resounding answer: let Messi leave next July. For all of the good this man has done on and off the pitch, he's now having a more negative than positive impact on the play of PSG. He doesn't press, he doesn't defend, heck, he doesn't move around, just walking here and there and doing nothing else.

The injury of Nuno Mendes was barely felt because Juan Bernat was great playing off the bench in relief, and even assisting Mbappe in the game-tying goal by the France international and face of PSG. The injury of Neymar was notably worse on both Sunday and looking ahead at what comes next.

The one absence truly noted, though, was the one of Achraf Hakimi. With Messi straight refusing to do anything, not having Hakimi running up and down the right 100% deactivates the Argentina international in terms of connections and activity. That, in turn, helps the opposition to game-plan against PSG without even considering having to cover that side of the field. Why do so, if there is no threat coming from there?

Luis Campos felt so out of PSG that he even decided to leave his sit, go down to the technical area inhabited by Christophe Galtier, and clash with the referee and his assistants while there. It was, simply put, absurd and shameful. If this is the image Paris Saint-Germain want to offer the world, well, then don't be surprised if news about fast-food eating and poker games pop up daily.

Collectif Ultras Paris and the rest of the Parisian fans attending the game and watching live on location, surprisingly, pushed the team forward instead of refusing to give up on them as the players seemed to have done in reverse. Some things never change, and PSG surely have some of the best supporters in world football.