Italian sports papers all say the same thing about Gigio Donnarumma’s error against Real Madrid and praise Carlo Ancelotti who outcoached Mauricio Pochettino.
A hat-trick of Karim Benzema helped the Merengues to qualify for the Champions League quarter-finals at the expense of PSG, who had dominated the first leg in Paris and at least one hour in the return leg in Madrid last night.
However, a mistake of Gigio Donnarumma sparked the Merengues’ comeback and despite protests of PSG players and directors for a potential foul on the Italy international, sports papers in the country blame the goalkeeper saying that his team’s troubles began after his error.
Gigio was rated 4.5/10 by Gazzetta dello Sport and 4 by Tuttosport and Il Corriere dello Sport.
On the other hand, Carlo Ancelotti earned a victory that seemed impossible until the final 30 minutes. His use of substitution is being praised by Italian media, while Pochettino was criticised for not making the right choices during the game. According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, the ex-Tottenham coach should have subbed off Neymar in the second half.
Ancelotti was rated 7/10 by Gazzetta and Corriere and 8.5 by Il Corriere dello Sport. ‘The Champions League is his home,’ wrote the Turin-based paper.
Italy’ international Marco Verratti was one of PSG’s best players and was rated 6 by Gazzetta, 6.5 by Tuttosport and 7 by Corriere dello Sport. Only Kylian Mbappé had better ratings among PSG players.
Totally agree with this article. Donnarumma is to blame and as mentioned before, I do not think Mancio should have him as first choice. There are many Italian goalkeepers that are on form and they must be taken into account. I also agree that Neymar should have been substituted. The only praising grace for Donnarumma is that Navas isn’t playing that well either as in the league PSG have not done that well either.