Paris Saint-Germain missed their chance to seal the Ligue 1 title at Parc des Princes on Saturday with a 3-3 draw with Le Havre AC which means that Luis Enrique’s men must wait to see what AS Monaco do against Olympique Lyonnais on Sunday. Should Les Monegasques fail to win, then the defending champions will have successfully defended their crown ahead of the UEFA Champions League semifinals against Borussia Dortmund which start next week.
Christopher Operi, Andre Ayew and Abdoulaye Toure all scored for the visitors, who led 3-1 at one point with only Bradley Barcola’s goal for the hosts until Achraf Hakimi and Goncalo Ramos later secured a draw for PSG. Paris did well to save a point when it had looked as if Luka Elsner’s side were going to take three priceless points in their bid to beat relegation but PSG fought back well to show that even a rotated Parisien XI is ready to dig deep for results as we enter a critical moment in the season.
Both PSG and Dortmund had their minds elsewhere over the weekend with the opening leg coming up in Germany this next midweek but Edin Terzic’s men suffered a blowout loss to RB Leipzig while Paris managed to salvage a draw. Signal Iduna Park will be the venue for one of the biggest games of the French giants’ season so far but they blew the chance to secure their own 12th Ligue 1 title and now it will be Lyon’s turn to have a go against Monaco.
It was not all negative, though, with Warren Zaire-Emery extending his contract at Parc des Princes until 2029 pre-kickoff which gave the Parisien supporters further reason for optimism ahead of the future which could be influenced by the two results against Dortmund. The talented young midfielder wasted little time in celebrating his new deal with an assist for Bradley Barcola’s equalizer on the half-hour mark.
“I have always lived in Paris, my entire family is in Paris, and I feel at home at this club,” said Zaire-Emery of the news. “I feel good here and I hope to spend my entire career here. Since I was little, with my family, my parents, I have always watched PSG. It is a club I wanted to play for when I was little, and now for the past two years… It is a dream come true for me with my club. And I hope it continues for as long as possible because it is truly the club I love and where I want to play for as long as I can.”
Zaire-Emery was a surprise absentee against Barcelona in the opening leg of the quarterfinals before being restored for the return leg which saw Luis Enrique’s side demolish the Catalan giants 4-1 on the night and 6-4 on aggregate. The France international is unlikely to miss out against Dortmumd and even scored away from home earlier in the season when these two sides met and shared a 1-1 draw which kept the Germans top of the group.
Expect to see more consistency from Luis Enrique in his starting XI selection despite rotating over the past two week to keep all of his players fresh ahead of two of the biggest European games in PSG history. Even if they need to play on and win one more game to be certain of Ligue 1 success, there is little doubt that such a scenario is only a matter of time and could be decided without Paris even kicking a ball which is why they are now focused on the Champions League and targeting a return to the final for the first time since 2020.
