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Paris Saint-Germain and goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma travel to Portugal on Wednesday, where they will face Benfica Lisbon on Matchday 3 of the Champions League group stage. A highly anticipated match once morest a formidable opponent and in which the Italian international might be a key player.
PSG, which challenges Benfica Lisbon on its lawn, Wednesday October 5 for the 3e daytime of the Champions League (9 p.m.), is regarding to face the most dangerous team in his group. Like him, the Portuguese club seems well on board to access the 8es finals of the competition, following winning their first two games, at home once morest Maccabi Haifa (2-0), and in Turin once morest Juventus (1-2).
The leader of the Portuguese championship has shown impressive success at the start of the season, especially in attack, with 35 goals scored in 14 games. He had even won all his matches, in all competitions, until the draw conceded on Saturday on the ground of Vitoria Guimaraes (0-0).
The Paris defense, which has conceded a goal in each of its two European meetings this season, is warned. Goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma can expect much more demand in a molten Estádio da Luz.
However, the last bastion of the Italian European champions, elected best player of Euro-2020, has been slow to display total serenity since his signing in Paris, in July 2021.
An intermittent solidity
Arrived at PSG to compete with the holder Keylor Navas, he shared the cage with the irreproachable Costa Rican goalkeeper during his first season in Paris, notably in the Champions League. But more than his reflex stops, it was his air pockets once morest Real Madrid, during the round of 16 second leg of the Champions League, fatal to PSG, which marked the first year of his Parisian adventure.
Foul or not during his controversial duel once morest Karim Benzema, the result is the same: his kicking game and the elimination of a PSG yet announced as favorite and almost qualified have caused a lot of ink to flow.
Since the arrival in the summer of 2022 of coach Christophe Galtier, who designated him number one goalkeeper, Gianluigi Donnarumma seems to have turned the page and gained confidence, despite the episode of Keylor Navas’ true-false start at Naples.
In Ligue 1, the former Milanese, elected best goalkeeper of the year 2021, does the job and the Parisian defense is the best in the French championship, tied with that of the Marseille rival (5 goals conceded in 9 games) .
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— Ligue 1 Uber Eats (@Ligue1UberEats) November 29, 2021
But his more than hazardous aerial outing once morest Juveduring his team’s first C1 match, revived an opponent then mastered by the Parisian block, and revived the debate on his performance during major matches.
Despite its aura and its indisputable qualities, this intermittent fragility does not yet convince the Parisian supporters.
“We often forget that Gianluigi is a young goalkeeper. On the goal of Juve, we noted a poor appreciation on his part on the trajectory of the ball but I also remember the two decisive stops, recently pleaded Christophe Galtier, in conference We talked regarding it together, I prefer to have a goalkeeper who comes out on set pieces. He has the technical quality, he has the ‘jump’. I don’t want this error to slow him down, “added the Parisian coach.
Buffon’s natural successor
Considered a phenomenon from his professional debut at AC Milan, at the age of 16, he progressed season following season to the point of being designated as the natural successor of the transalpine legend, and former goalkeeper of PSG. , Gianluigi Buffon.
Despite the pressure of Serie A matches and the Milan derbies, the colossus (1m96, 92kg) from Castellammare di Stabia, his hometown south of Pompeii, quickly proved to live up to the expectations expressed in Italy. .
Since his arrival, for lack of an opponent, in Ligue 1, capable of heckling the PSG defense for 90 minutes, Gianluigi Donnarumma has not had the opportunity to sign, as he often does in selection, a reference match even to mark the spirits. And his adventure in the Champions League having come to an end last season, only the European forum can once once more offer him the opportunity to demonstrate that he is the goalkeeper he needs to allow PSG to hang this competition on his record. .
Imperial on his line, his sober and efficient style recalls that of the 2014 world champion Manuel Neuer, the irremovable goalkeeper of Bayern. Gianluigi Donnarumma does not lack much to rise to the level of the constellation of stars that surround him at PSG. Something like a series of decisive parries in the face of a raging attack like Benfica’s is currently?