Neymar agreed to sacrifice himself for the team during Paris Saint Germain’s Champions League win against Juventus on Tuesday night.
According to L’Equipe, per Culture PSG, manager Christophe Galtier wanted to task one of his front three to a very specific task, to hinder Juventus’ football by pressing Leandro Parades and limiting the Argentina international’s influence on the game.
Neymar volunteered to mark the midfielder, who was a teammate of the Brazilian's when he was at PSG.
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In what was an incredible gesture of good will to sacrifice his game to work for the team, Neymar did his job.
He was ranked third amongst the PSG players for distance ran after clocking 9.9 kilometres. The two ahead of him were defender Sergio Ramos and midfield maestro Marco Verratti, with 10km and 10.5km respectively.
The Parc des Princes club were outstanding on the night as they produced some scintillating football.
Kylian Mbappe gave the French champions the lead in the fifth minute after a beautiful chip by Neymar that fell perfectly into the path of the Frenchman who volleyed the ball pass Juventus goalkeeper Mattia Perin.
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Mbappe then doubled his tally to make it 2-0 as he expertly tucked away a pull back from right back Achraf Hakimi.
Weston McKennie scored in the 53th minute but they were unable to mount a proper fight back.
After the match, manager Galtier admitted that his side were poor in the second half.
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He said: “We had problems after the break, as we allowed a few too many chances, but I am happy overall with the performance.
“At times we defended deeper to go on the counter, so I am satisfied with what we did in the first half. When you are 2-0 up, the third goal will arrive on the right side or the wrong one…
“Our positioning was wrong on the short corner, it was meant to be a different plan. We allowed chances, but this is the Champions League, and we also had opportunities to score our third.”
Up next for PSG is a Ligue 1 clash against Brest.
Topics: Neymar, Paris Saint-Germain, Champions League, Juventus
Marcus Chan