Le Parisien described Paris St Germain’s Champions League exit as “unforgivable” and said the club was “cursed”.
PSG coach Thomas Tuchel appears to be on borrowed time after his team squandered a 2-0 first-leg advantage in their Champions League last-16 tie against Manchester United, losing the home leg 3-1 to go out on away goals.
Columnist Dominique Severac described the result as “an earthquake” and “an industrial accident” for PSG, writing in Le Parisien: “There was the ‘remontada’ (Barcelona’s comeback against PSG) in 2017, there is now the trauma of 2019, confirming the club is cursed.”
Severac added that United’s winner – a penalty awarded after a VAR intervention, was a “hellish cruelty, sending the capital club back to its demons, its mental fragility, its unlikely individual mistakes”.
“If it had been written, nobody would believe it,” he added.
“It exists and it’s completely crazy, surreal, crazy, unprecedented. Sad if we love PSG, incredible if we worship football, very ‘PSG’ if we follow PSG.
“With PSG, it’s often the team’s own fault, reminding the opponent that he does not have to push too hard to bring down this paper giant.”
L’Equipe described the outcome as a “cataclysm” for PSG, with Damien Degorre writing: “Who (is) to blame? Gianluigi Buffon, for not managing to hold a harmless strike from Marcus Rashford, while Manchester United did not exist in this match?
“Kylian Mbappe, who had the ball at 2-2, alone against David De Gea, in the 84th minute? Thilo Kehrer, who had placed the same Lukaku and his team in orbit while the match had just started?
“Thomas Tuchel, who gave the feeling of suffering the end of the match and to be satisfied with this sufficient defeat by a (single) goal until the beginnings of the additional time?”
