Paris Saint-Germain 2-2 Napoli
Well, that has set the Champions League cat among the pigeons.
Angel Di Maria’s priceless last-gasp equaliser will feature in many Champions League 2018 highlights for SBOBET fans.
But what’s more, the importance to Paris Saint-Germain’s Group C qualifying hopes could be unquantifiable.
Remember, this is a team which has continually failed to master football’s premier competition, even since the Qatar Sports Investments takeover in 2011.
Now, the Champions League 2018 betting odds have moved slightly again after Di Maria’s 93rd-minute effort from the edge of the box found the top left corner of the net.
Seconds before, they had been looking down the barrel of a group exit.
Highlights of the game
PSG will be mightily relieved, and it is Carlo Ancelotti’s Napoli who have every right to be happier, despite their late concession.
They thoroughly deserved at least a point against a club many consider as favourites to win this season’s competition.
The sense PSG could have an odd night occurred in the opening minutes when former Napoli favourite Edinson Cavani—who scored 78 goals in 104 Serie A appearances for the club between 2010 and 2013 before moving to Paris—and Neymar both went for the same ball and collided, with the Brazilian even requiring treatment for a knock to the ankle.
Marquinhos was also booked within five minutes for raking his studs down Dries Mertens’ leg. The Belgian, though, would later exact perfect revenge.
Mertens also had bad luck when his 24th-minute volley from a Mario Rui cross came back off the crossbar.
Yet, it’s hard to keep a good man down and Lorenzo Insigne, the hero of the Partenopei’s last group match against Liverpool, expertly lobbed the onrushing goalkeeper Alphonse Areola after a threaded through ball from Jose Callejon just before the half-hour mark.
Areola was playing because new signing Gianluigi Buffon is suspended in Europe after his misdemeanours for Juventus in last season’s competition.
The lead was what Ancelotti’s side deserved on his return to the Parc des Princes just over a year after a 3-0 defeat marked the end of his tenure as boss of Bayern Munich.
Yet, this has also been a happy place for the veteran Italian who was coach of PSG from 2011 to 2013 during which he won one Ligue 1 title.
The goal showed Insigne’s class but it was clear he was not fully fit – he later complained of struggling to breathe after a knock to the ribs – and he left the fray eight minutes after the restart at a time when PSG were starting to flex their muscles.
Both Kylian Mbappe, Di Maria and Neymar saw efforts blocked or saved before the hosts drew level as the clock struck an hour played.
The luckless Rui was credited with putting the ball past his own goalkeeper, sliding a Thomas Meunier cross into his own net.
Mertens went close to restoring Napoli’s lead and was not to be denied 13 minutes from time when he poked home a right-footed shot after the ball came to him off Marquinhos.
Mertens nearly had his second moments later when his header from another Rui delivery forced Areola into action. Arkadiusz Milk also went close with a header soon after.
Injury time proved to a decisive moment as Di Maria, who played hero when Ancelotti guided Real Madrid to Champions League glory in 2014, curled a superb effort beyond the despairing dive of David Ospina.
Honours even but a real show of the progress Napoli are making under Ancelotti. The return fixture is in a fortnight’s time and will be a crucial contest in what appears to be a three-way battle to reach the knockout stage.
This was also another example of PSG failing to win in Europe when it matters most.
As for Neymar, the full-time whistle signalled yet more petulance from the world’s most expensive footballer.
He marched straight off the pitch without shaking an opponent’s hand and kicked an object in frustration on his way, presumably back to the dressing room.
His reputation continues to go before him and his sense of entitlement and general body language does him no favours.
Key statistics
This was Neymar’s 50th UEFA Champions League appearance.
The French title-holders have now won only two of their 19 games against Italian clubs, home and away (drawn eight, lost nine).
What’s next?
Both sides have two matches before renewing acquaintances in Naples in just under a fortnight’s time.
PSG travel to Marseille in Ligue 1 and then host Lille before travelling to Italy.
Napoli now have three home games in a row and a big clash with Roma this weekend before entertaining Empoli, also in Serie A.
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