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Former France international Emmanuel Petit has criticized Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) players for falling apart against Real Madrid in the second leg of their Champions League Round of 16 clash. He claimed that the Parisians were at “their wit's end” at the Santiago Bernabeu.
PSG made the trip to Real Madrid for the return leg on Wednesday night. Having won the first leg 1-0 in Paris last month, the visitors had a significant edge over Los Blancos coming into the return fixture.
Star striker Kylian Mbappe doubled the French giants' advantage six minutes before half-time, handing them a 2-0 aggregate lead. Despite being in a commanding position, Les Parisiens lost their footing and conceded three goals from Karim Benzema in 17 second-half minutes.
Shell-shocked by Benzema’s treble, Paris fell to a 3-1 (3-2 on aggregate) defeat on the night and crashed out of the European competition.
Emmanuel Petit was left furious with the way the Ligue 1 outfit crumbled under pressure. Branding PSG’s performance as “professional misconduct”, the former midfielder claimed that Wednesday’s defeat was worse than their infamous 6-1 drubbing against Barcelona in 2016-17.
Speaking on RMC Sport 1, Petit said:
“The players were desperate in a few minutes. I am extremely angry because it is professional misconduct, even more serious than that against Barça. We saw it after Real Madrid's equalizer, things fell apart very quickly.”
The Frenchman added:
“There were no longer the same benchmarks, the same serenity on the The players were almost at their wit's end in the space of a few minutes, when we are talking about players who have a track record, who have a personality.”
In the 2016-17 season, PSG secured a 4-0 first-leg win over Barcelona in the Champions League Round of 16 stage. In the return leg, the Parisians were handed a historic 6-1 defeat at the Camp Nou, conceding three goals in the last eight minutes of the match.
Funnily enough, Lionel Messi and Neymar were Barca’s protagonists that night, but the duo couldn’t make the same impact for Paris at the Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday.
Kylian Mbappe shines brightly in PSG’s upsetting Champions League defeat to Real Madrid
While both Lionel Messi and Neymar endured sub-par outings at the Bernabeu, Paris Saint-Germain star Kylian Mbappe produced another world-class display.
He got the better of Daniel Carvajal more often than not and scored a superb goal in the 39th minute to put PSG in the driver’s seat. He also had a couple of goals ruled out for offside.
The Frenchman was often the lone driving force in Paris Saint-Germain’s attack, which came as a surprise given the quality Les Parisiens have up top.
The 23-year-old fought valiantly until the final minute, but could not find it in himself to cancel out Karim Benzema’s historic hat-trick.
