Kylian Mbappe had to wait until the 57th minute to feature against Bayern Munich as Christophe Galtier managed his injured PSG superstar.
Christophe Galtier bemoaned the timing of Paris Saint-Germain conceding before Kylian Mbappe’s planned introduction, but still has hope in the UEFA Champions League.
Kingsley Coman scored the only goal of the game in the 53rd minute at the Parc des Princes, four minutes before Mbappe, returning from injury, got into the game for the last 16 years.
The France international remained a doubt before kick-off but sparked struggling PSG into life after his substitution, seeing goals twice ruled out for offside in the first leg on Tuesday.
As the Ligue 1 champions head to the Allianz Arena on March 8 with a slender 1-0 deficit, Galtier has reminded PSG that they will be playing for everything in Germany.
The PSG coach told Canal Plus: “We managed to push them in 25-30 minutes. There are offside goals, two or three situations.
“Obviously there is disappointment, but we know tonight is not a qualified team or a relegation team.
“We will have to see in three weeks the state of our team, if we have recovered fitness and have the players to play the whole game at the level of our last half an hour.”
A late rally performance from Mbappe and co. will offer Galtier cause for optimism, especially with PSG beating Bayern in a two-legged Champions League affair in 2020-21.
PSG beat then-defending champions Bayern on away goals in the quarter-finals, with a 3–2 away victory enough to stave off a 1–0 Bundesliga win in the second leg.
Mbappe scored twice in the first-leg win that season and Galtier described it as an unlucky planned performance from the PSG forward, this time coming just before Coman’s strike against his former team.
“Since we didn’t have the depth in our game, Bayern went forward and put pressure on us and we struggled to get the ball out, we kept it very high,” Galtier added.
“We had a very difficult first half. The plan was a different scenario because I knew I would be able to use Kylian.
“Unfortunately, we conceded this goal at a time when changes with the new organization were about to take place.
“The team responded for 25 minutes, but with a system more in line with our qualities.”
