PSG are living their worst moment of the season. After the Qatar 2022 World Cup break, they have three losses in Ligue 1 against Lens, Rennes and Monaco. Furthermore, they were eliminated from the French Cup in the Round of 16 by archrival Olympique Marseille. Now, they got in big trouble in the 2022-2023 Champions League.
In the first leg of the Round of 16, PSG lost 1-0 against Bayern Munich at home. Even with all their stars, the French club were absolutely dominated until a late reaction occured in the final minutes when Kylian Mbappe took the field. Other than that, PSG showed they're still in the middle of a huge crisis.
So, after another disappointment from PSG in the tournament everyone's expecting them to win, the French press had to point out some names. In an unexpected turn of events, especially after what was seen during the game against Bayern Munich, Lionel Messi was the one to blame.
Lionel Messi destroyed by press in France after game with Bayern Munich
According to prestigious L'Equipe, Lionel Messi had one of the worst perfomances during PSG's loss against Bayern Munich in the first leg of the Round of 16 at the Champions League. The star from Argentina got a grade of 3 out of 10. Other players from the starting lineup who got that number: Neymar, Achraf Hakimi, Marco Verratti and Warren Zaïre-Emery.
Thousands of fans wondered if L'Equipe grade was too harsh. Lionel Messi definitely didn't have his best game at Parc des Princes, but, after thorough analysis, the superstar wasn't the worst on the field for PSG. Even Carlos Soler got a better grade than Messi. Gianluigi Donnaruma too though he had a huge mistake in Bayern's goal.
That's when the controversy ignited remembering Argentina won the World Cup final over France and the media from that country exploded against the referee and many players of the championship team.
By the way, during last season's Round of 16 of the Champions League, Lionel Messi got another 3 out of 10 by L'Equipe even when PSG won 1-0 over Real Madrid in the first leg. That time, again, Messi was pointed out as the worst player of the team. It wasn't even close.
