According to Tasnim news agency, after losing the Loclassic result to Marseille and withdrawing from the French Cup, last night (Saturday) Paris Saint-Germain lost 3-1 to one of its old contenders and rivals in the league, Monaco. This defeat was recorded in the record of the defending champion of the competition, when he did not have the two main stars of his offensive line, Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe, due to injuries.
Despite this loss, the Parisians are still at the top of the LeChampione standings with a reasonable margin of safety (currently seven points), but the consequence of this defeat was more than just the loss of three points. According to the report of the French team publication, after the game in the dressing room of the Parisians, there was a verbal conflict between Luis Campos, the sports director of the club, and several players, including Marquinhos and Neymar, which made the atmosphere in the dressing room tense.
There is no doubt that the tension in the Parisian dressing room is not unrelated to the recent bad results of this team in more than 40 days since 2023. PSG have lost three times and drawn once in their seven games in the Champions League in the new year. In addition, Christophe Gaultier’s students have no place in the FA Cup anymore, and with the current situation, one should not hope for their advancement to the quarter-finals of the European Champions League by passing the barrier of a rival like Bayern Munich. The injuries of Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe, which kept them at home, have added to the troubles of the defending champion of the Champions League.
The problems of the French capital team are also diverse. Gaultier’s men went to the Stade Louis II and lost 3-1 to Monaco when they all came down with a viral illness that affected their digestive systems, although that cannot be said to excuse the French side’s recent failings. In fact, the more believable reason for this failure is what was speculated about, the division in the team’s dressing room.
According to the report of the team, a fierce verbal conflict between several senior players of the team and Luis Campos began after the sports director of the club accused some players of not working enough and not having enough commitment, and this applies to all of them, especially the Brazilian couple Neymar and Marquinhos. And it forces them to show a reaction, but not a normal reaction but with aggression and violence, so that in order to better understand the other party, all three people call each other bad and wrong in their mother tongue (Portuguese) and this surprises the other people. He also followed the present in the dressing room.
Neymar’s expression of anger did not occur only in the dressing room, because at the end of the game, he left the field while muttering under his breath and using inappropriate words to protest the performance of some of his teammates. He had a lot of influence on the players, especially Ugo Ekiteke.
As it can be seen, the responsibility of scoring goals falls on Neymar’s shoulders and his inability to meet expectations has lowered his tolerance threshold, and for this reason, it is in the interest of Christophe Gaultier that Messi and Mbappe return to training as soon as possible.
The next match of the Parisians is on Tuesday night in Paris against Bayern Munich in the first leg of the quarter-finals of the Champions League.