If there is something that is differentiating PSG from the rest of the teams in Ligue 1, it is the extraordinary quality of the squad. The Parisian team is not performing a fairly fluid game, but the fact of having so many top level players line by line ends up tipping the scales in their favor in the final minutes. This Friday, against Rennes, Mbappé gave Pochettino’s men the victory with a goal in extremis in the 94th minute, something that is no coincidence if we look at the statistics of the season.
It all started on September 19, at PSG-Lyon. The current leader of Ligue 1 began losing to a goal from Lucas Paquetá, but Neymar, from a penalty, equalized the match. In the 93rd minute, just when the match was seen for sentence, Icardi appeared to put the 2-1 on the scoreboard. Since then, they have been nine games in which the capital team has scored goals in the final stretch to tie or to take the three points.
To Lyon we must add Metz in ’94, Leipzig in the Champions League in ’85, Angers in ’87, Lille in ’87, Nantes in ’85 (with one less player), Lens on the 9th2 to tie with both of Wijnaldum, Lorient in 91 for tie it also with both Icardi and Rennes this Friday with a target from Mbappé to magnify an anomalous statistic within European football. In total, PSG have achieved 17 points from the 80th minute on so far this season, so what seems like a stroke of luck has become a constant that has served to save Pochettino’s furniture at critical moments of the matches.
Against Real Madrid on Tuesday, in a tie in which the details are more than transcendental, PSG can show off its squad power to decide the double confrontation in the final stretch. Ancelotti should, at the very least, take note that the matches against the Parisians are not decided until the referee signals the end of the match. If the French giant is going to equal Saint-Étienne in May as the team with the most Ligue 1 in history (10), a lot of blame will be due to the drive they have shown from the 80th minute.