Tactically, PSG beat Lyon 2-0 on Monday night, and both goals came off the bench. Senny Mayulu in the 72nd minute, a shot from about 18 metres after a cross from Mika Godts. Then Godts himself late on, a placed shot into the corner. Two subs, two goals, and one sub setting up the other. I got my folder of team sheets out on the kitchen table and went back over my changes from Sunday.
At my place, I have five substitutions. Two are for fetching the kids at half-time. One is for the keeper, who has an appointment. That leaves two for football, and I make them in the 80th minute, when the club delegate (our matchday volunteer) signals that the clubhouse bar is closing soon. At PSG, the subs come on and score. I run that on Tuesday. When we’ve got eleven, that is.
PSG played without Ousmane Dembélé or Khvisha Kvaratskhelia, among others. Matvey Safonov had to work hard several times in goal to keep the clean sheet. On the Lyon side, Ruben Kluivert came on in the 76th. The match had also been moved to Monday night by the Paris authorities. A Monday. On Mondays I look at the table of the third provincial division (Belgium’s Sunday amateur leagues) like a verdict. They were playing to change theirs, and they went back to the top of Ligue 1.
What I take from it is Godts’s cross for Mayulu. A sub who doesn’t come on to protect the result but to make it. I wrote that down in red in the folder, on the page for intentions. My left winger will get the message on his phone, and he’ll think it’s a mistake.
Two goals from the bench, that’s historic. I’m weighing my words. Your bench, Freddy, is a towel and a mug of coffee.
She’s not wrong about the towel. But a flat pitch away, mind you, my last two subs could have crossed from about 18 metres too. The problem is that by the 80th minute, it’s already dark on pitch 2.
It’s true, we checked: NOS.
