Come, Vidi… Vitinha. The Portuguese midfielder came, he saw and he beamed. Number 17 experienced, this Wednesday, November 26, the kind of memorable evenings that mark a career and stick to the retina. 45 minutes of pure madness, 45 minutes to turn the tables, score a unique hat-trick, the first of his career, and further establish his status as the best midfielder in the world.
It was necessary to wake up an almost apathetic Parc des Princes, almost asleep, lulled by the senatorial rhythm imprinted by Luis Enrique’s troops. It was simply necessary to have a gem, a flash of genius to electrify the sky of Paris and make us forget the boring first 45 minutes.
If the first period of the European champions left us speechless by their lack of genius, it was the same when Vitinha came to freeze the blood of Tottenham by scoring a delicious equalizing goal that the Parisian supporters will watch on repeat this Thursday morning, again and again. A “banger” as the young people say.
Without inspiration, PSG relied on the genius of its Portuguese (25 years old) who came to prove to the whole of Europe that he was the world reference in his position, confirmed by his 3rd place in the Ballon d’Or, and that this status was frankly not usurped.
The Spurs had obviously not revised their records by leaving so much free space for Vitinha who took back with first intention, at 25 m, a ball given by Ndjantou and then came to lodge under the bar of Vicario, following a corner which he himself had obtained… on a long shot.
A well-deserved standing ovation
If we are used to highlighting the vista, the technical finesse and the science of the game of the Parisian sentinel, long shots have, since his arrival in August 2022, a house specialty for the former Porto: 11 of his 24 goals with PSG have been scored from outside the area! Celebrated at its true value, this fabulous achievement could have remained an anecdote when Randal Kolo Muani came to shower the Park by giving Spurs the advantage (50th).
But since Vitinha proves indispensable in this collective sometimes lacking genius on the attacking front without its offensive stars, the Parisian vice-captain decided to put on the costume of serial scorer and take inspiration from his compatriot João Neves.
Three minutes later, it was he who was responsible for equalizing, once again, using his “bad foot”, the left, to mystify Vicario and the three opposing players surrounding him, with a nice curling shot (53rd).
A well-deserved standing ovation
The first “Vitinha, Vitinha…” came down from the Auteuil stand who will not hold it against him for his loss of the ball leading to Kolo Muani’s second goal (72nd).
Angry at having offered this achievement to the English, number 17 will, one last time, make everyone agree, as if to remind us that this evening was his. A penalty provoked and transformed into force (75th), making us forget his two previous failures against Arsenal… and Tottenham, and confirming his status as the most decisive Parisian player of the season (5 goals, 8 assists).
Yes, PSG has at the heart of this fall a magician who quite simply deserved the superb standing ovation reserved by the entire Park as he left the field. Veni, Vidi, Vici.