PSG extended winless streak to three games with Paris going down in flames

There must be something in the water. That’s the only way to explain the never-ending stream of rumors and controversies coming out of the French capital as PSG were held to another draw by Benfica in their latest Champions League game, amid a tumultuous afternoon full of rumors concerning Kylian Mbappe’s relationship with the club.

First things first: the Rouge et Bleu have not been able to win a game in three consecutive attempts for the first time since they drew three games between the end of April and the start of May. Of course, the context was quite different back then with the season ending as compared to streak during the current campaign, which is just getting started.

Benfica, the Portuguese giants from Lisbon, are in a similar position to that of PSG in their domestic league: Benfica are sitting first with an 8W-1D record (to PSG’s 8W-2D), 3 points clear of second-place Porto (PSG are 3 points above contenders OM) and they’re facing their chasers this weekend (PSG are playing Olympique Marseille on Sunday).

So, of course, they had to draw both legs against each other as part of their Champions League campaigns. The 1-1 in Portugal was only a preview of what would happen a week later in Paris: another 1-1 draw between PSG and Benfica, with both goals scored on Tuesday coming via penalty kicks.

The man of the day, Kylian Mbappe, opened the scoreboard from the spot with 40 minutes gone while Joao Mario did the same for Benfica after the half, past the 60-minute mark; Antonio Silva and Verratti being the offenders.

Paris Saint-Germain were as good as they have been for most of the season, but as has been the trend of late, they were far from their best like they showed through the first few games of the season leading up to the first Champions League games.

Perhaps the stiffer competition made things a bit more difficult or perhaps, just maybe, PSG are always involved in so many dramas and controversies they will never be able to truly focus on what matters most: football.

That’s because, on the eve of a game in which a victory would have seen PSG through to the Round of 16, Mbappe broke the internet. Not even Juventus falling 0-2 to Israel-based Maccabi Haifa was big enough news to overshadow what became the main story in the sports, let alone football, world: Mbappe wants out of PSG as early as next January.

While Spanish Marca was the outlet to put it all in motion, it didn’t take long for respected French media to confirm the report coming from Spain. On Wednesday, with all of the news already processed, well-baked, and ready to serve, the press came out firing. “Rupture Point”, titled L’Equipe and “Why [Mbappe] wants to leave PSG very quickly,” used Le Parisien.

Fabrizio Romano, the football-rumor demigod, didn’t take long to join the conversation adding wood to this never-ending soap opera.

Whether anyone fell for it this time is debatable. Mbappe himself never made any public comment about this reported demand submitted to the club offices and higher-ups in Paris. The club itself never even entertained the idea to rush their way toward any sort of short tweet denying the reports.

Funnily enough, the first official statement related to the topic was at the actual game between PSG and Benfica when newly-appointed sporting director Luis Campos talked to the media minutes before kick-off telling them on location at the Parc des Princes that “[Mbappe] never talked about leaving in January. He never discussed it with the President either. It’s not a statement from the player, it’s a rumor.”

It was Luis Campos who, earlier this summer, publicly accepted his failure at accomplishing the goals set up by the PSG board in preparation for this season, seemingly fostering the current malcontent of Mbappe.

Those being: bringing a pivotal striker (Gianluca Scamacca and Robert Lewandowski were PSG’s main targets), bolstering the defense with top-tier options such as Milan Skriniar, and (perhaps most important for Mbappe considering his presumed desire of playing left-wing football) getting rid of Neymar.

Now, nearly 48 hours since the Mbappe rumors broke, things seem to have cooled down a bit. At the end of Tuesday, and all drama considered, Mbappe was sitting atop the PSG goalscoring leaderboards in European competitions with 31 to Edinson Cavani’s 30.

On top (no pun intended) of everything, PSG are still leading the way in Group H of the Champions League. Yes, the French are still locked into a tie with Benfica having 8 points each through MD4, but Juventus’ unexpected loss to Maccabi opened a huge door for the two giants to qualify as soon as this week and, failing at that, most probably next week.

Sergio Ramos played on Tuesday but he will miss Sunday’s game after he got handed a two-game suspension for Ligue 1 games after his yellow-to-red-card fracas last Saturday. Lionel Messi — who has missed the last two games with a nagging calf issue — should be back with the Parisians and in the next starting XI deployed by Christophe Galtier.

An otherworldly Le Classique is waiting around the corner in what figures to be the next meaningful checkpoint in this infinite timeline of endless PSG stories and drama. There are still more than two days left until that match kicks off, though, and with this club, you never truly know what’s about to pop.