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Paris Saint-Germain have enjoyed a successful past 24 hours or so with the signing of Khvicha Kvaratskhelia from Napoli followed up by a 2-1 win away at RC Lens to open up a provisional 10-point lead at the Ligue 1 summit. Ahead of Wednesday’s crucial UEFA Champions League test against Manchester City at Parc des Princes, it was an ideal way to prepare for Luis Enrique’s Parisiens as they came from 1-0 down to win 2-1 with their new Georgian star bringing immediate — albeit indirect — impact.
Bradley Barcola will be competing with Kvaratskhelia for supremacy on the left wing with one of the two possibly eventually shuffling to false nine which continues to be PSG’s attacking approach of choice despite Goncalo Ramos’ return to fitness. The France international was able to immediately fire off his response to his new positional rival given that the Crusaders’ international was unable to debut immediately following his switch from Naples which was made official late on Friday.
Barcola and his Paris teammates did not make it easy for themselves with M’Bala Nzola scoring the opener from a corner to punish Luis Enrique’s side for not being tight enough defensively and only an offside and a determined Gianluigi Donnarumma stopped him from making it 2-0. The hosts’ inability to double their lead proved costly with Barcola’s first of two goal contributions on Saturday coming when he teed up Fabian Ruiz for the equalizer on the hour mark to set up a very different final 30 minutes.
The former Olympique Lyonnais man thumped home an emphatic winner late on with his first Ligue 1 goal since early November to go with his assist and midweek Coupe de France strike in the win over minnows Espaly. Barcola suddenly has a bit of form and momentum under his belt again having spent the past few months looking somewhat lost and the timing could not be better for Luis Enrique who now has another quality attacking element at his disposal.
“We are happy,” said Barcola after the game. “We started well but we were a bit down after conceding the goal. We lost motivation around the break so we are happy with the outcome. We know that we worked really hard here to score those two goals. I am happy to have scored my goal and to be feeling good again. There were no doubts, though. Now we are going to prepare well and work to be ready for City.”
“Kvaradona” is not available against City in the UCL next week but his arrival has clearly shaken the Frenchman up sufficiently to reawaken his early season form which has him leading to scoring charts in Ligue 1 alongside Lille OSC’s Jonathan David and Olympique de Marseille’s Mason Greenwood. Ousmane Dembele, who is not far behind the prolific trio with 10 goals of his own, did not make the trip to Lens as he was allowed to recover from his minor injury ahead of the clash with Pep Guardiola’s struggling English Premier League giants in the capital next week.
Barcola stepping up in his compatriot’s absence but also showing that he has the hunger to welcome a challenge for a regular starting XI role bodes well ahead of a decisive run of games for Les Parisiens with VfB Stuttgart in the final Champions League matchup of the league phase. Kvaratskhelia will be available for PSG after the point but the bigger question is whether Paris will still be represented in this year’s edition given their precarious current position but Barcola is at least ready to be part of the effort to recover from that slow start based on this uptick in form.
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