Champions’ league: two defeats to overcome for Mané and Gueye

By Guillaume Mahot

Sadio Mané and Mo Salah were probably expecting something else for the return of the Champions’ League last Tuesday with the first leg games of the round of 16 2019/2020. The Senegalese striker of Liverpool FC and his Egyptian teammate were both on the pitch of Wanda Metropolitano to defy Atlético de Madrid of Ghanaian midfielder Thomas Partey, and came back to Mersey with a short but delicate defeat (1-0 for the Spaniards, goal from Saul Niguez in the first minutes of the game).

Being uncapable of scoring away, the last winner of the competition is going to have many situations in Anfield Road to pass this round in a couple of days for sure, but a goal from Diego Simeone’s team on their lands will put them in an uncomfortable situation with three goals to score. We all know the importance of this famous goal away. 

Naby Keita (Guinea) and Joël Matip (Cameroon) stayed on the bench for the Reds.

This goal away is what will make the Parisians hope in three weeks. Overpowered in Dortmund the same night, PSG got defeated 1-2 by Borussia Dortmund of Moroccan right back Achraf Hakimi. The French club, always claiming to be among the best clubs in the world but freaking out every time the round of 16 comes close, collapsed on two goals from Norwegian youngster (19 years old) Erling Haaland. Neymar scored for Paris on an assist from Kylian Mbappé, which makes the qualification possible with a simple 1-0 in Parc des Princes, but preventing the Germans from scoring will not be that simple, mostly regarding the current difficulties of Brazilian defender Thiago Silva. 

In the midfield, Senegalese Idrissa Gueye could not contain the waves of Borussia that will on top of that benefit from two suspensions on PSG’s side (Marco Verratti and Thomas Meunier) in three weeks.

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